Schmitz has been traveling around the world on his Parables tour, which focuses on bringing the Gospel message to audiences. The tour focuses on providing impactful messages by using several of Jesus’ parables taught in the New Testament.

“I’ve never been inside Radio City Music Hall and I’m so excited to be able to be there, but when it comes down to it, it’s out there: the people in the 12th row! There are people there to hear the word of God. You can see their faces, and there’s something about that to realize, OK, God wants them. He brought them here. To be entrusted with a bit of that. There’s an exciting part of it, but it’s also humbling,” Schmitz told “The Good Newsroom.”

He pointed out that while on tour he asks venues to leave the house lights up higher than usual so that the connection between preacher and those gathered can be maintained.

“I need to see their faces. I want to see them because it makes a connection,” he explained.

When discussing the reasoning behind choosing to focus on Jesus’ parables, Schmitz said: “God says, ‘No, this is what I need you to know, not just here’s a nice little story, but here’s what I need you to know.’ I was just so convicted by that. This is both urgent and important. That was the main driver [for the tour].”

The tour is part of Schmitz’s Seeds of Faith Campaign, which is raising funds for a new Newman Center to be built on the University of Minnesota, Duluth, (UMD) campus, where Schmitz is the chaplain at the Newman Center.

In an interview with EWTN News in 2025, the priest explained that while he has loved working in both parish and campus settings, each is unique. While college kids can tend to be “fickle” in their faith, he said, they also have a beautiful openness to change that he didn’t experience at a parish.

“College ministry is unique because you have this openness … It is that place where so many people are asking the big questions in life and we just see so many conversions happening when we’re there,” he said.

The Newman Center at UMD has seen a flourishing of vocations. According to Bulldog Catholic, the name of the university’s campus ministry, 400 couples have gone through marriage preparation classes, eight women have entered religious life, and over 16 men have entered seminary, with seven ordained as priests.

“One of my favorite things to do is marriage prep; it just really brings me so much life,” Schmitz said. “I just love even being able to present to couples who are discerning marriage like, no you’re actually discerning how God is asking you, calling you, to be his disciple in your life. That’s the big question. That’s one of the reasons why we get married in churches is because this is a sacrament of discipleship.”

As for those who have discerned religious life, Schmitz called it “a great grace” to walk with these individuals in their vocations.

For others working in campus ministry, Schmitz gave three suggestions to grow involvement: Offer daily Mass and confession, start engaging Bible studies, and host retreats often.

He emphasized that these events in which people are brought together, such as Bible studies and retreats, help grow involvement because “as Catholics we worship in rows, but we grow in circles.”

Tickets can be purchased for the Parables tour at Radio City Music Hall here.

The conference, organized by the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, is being held in Chantilly, Virginia, from Nov. 9–11. It hosted speakers including the Military Services Archbishop Timothy Broglio, lay theologians Joseph E. Capizzi and Matthew Bunson, and military veterans.

A theme of the talks was the negative consequences of any war. Even though war can be permitted under certain circumstances, the speakers emphasized the duty of political leaders to ensure that every criteria of just war doctrine is met when launching a war and to avoid it if at all possible.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, war can only be justified to confront a grave evil, the evil caused by the war cannot exceed the evil it seeks to end, all alternatives to war must be sought before it is waged, and the goals must have a real chance of success.

Duty to seek peace

“Fighting involves killing,” retired Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik — a commander in the Iraq War who also served in Afghanistan and several other countries — said in his talk.

War, according to Dubik, is “not just killing the combatants” but also includes “the killing of the innocents who are always caught up in wars.” It “damages lives and changes lives” and has an impact on relationships, communities, and sometimes a nation, he warned.

Dubik, who holds a doctorate in philosophy and works as a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War and as a professor at Georgetown Universityʼs security studies program, said that “even when you do everything as right as possible” and even when the acts are “completely justified,” “the soul of the individual, the relationships, the communities, are damaged.”

Decisions to go to war and decisions on the battlefield, Dubik said, “can cost people their lives.”

“This is why wars should always be fought and waged prudently,” Dubik said. “They should be fought and waged sparingly, as a last resort.”

Due to the severity of war, he said society needs a “robust” and “coherent” just war doctrine that leaders follow. The decision to go to war, he said, “can never be an amoral or aspiritual affair.”

At the conference, Capizzi, director for Notre Dame University’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, and Bunson, vice president and editorial director of EWTN News, talked about how the Catholic teaching of just war doctrine seeks to offer guidance to political leaders.

Given the consequences of any war, Capizzi explained that this is why the Church rejects the notion of “realpolitik,” which analyzes the subject through a strategic lens as opposed to a moral one.

Capizzi cited St. Augustine’s letter to the Roman general Boniface, noting that it’s important to emphasize war “should never be desired for its own sake.” He said it should “never be motivated by vengeance, wealth, glory, or vendetta, but rather it has to serve justice, it has to serve the community.”

“The men and women who serve in our military must be and are peacemakers when they remember that,” he said.

Seeking peace with Iran

Although the conference speakers mostly avoided weighing in on justifications for the ongoing war with Iran, Broglio discussed the application of just war doctrine to the conflict.

President Donald Trump told CNN on Sunday, Nov. 8, that it is “highly unlikely” he will escalate the war with Iran but that this depends on “whether or not they sign a very strong agreement,” threatening to “hit them really hard” if a deal is not reached.

Speaking to EWTN News during the conference, Broglio said “everything should be done to encourage dialogue” between Iran and the U.S., with a goal toward peace. He said “everything should be done to avoid war.”

“War is always the last possible option,” he said.

If there is an escalation, Broglio expressed concern over rhetoric about hitting infrastructure that civilians depend on, saying “many of those structures … support the defenses of an enemy” but “also support the civilian population.” He said civilian harm “should be avoided at all cost.”

Broglio said decisions moving forward must keep in mind “the innocent person who is always involved in these situations … [who] frequently runs the risk of losing his or her life.” He said “the dignity of that person” must be a priority when making these decisions.

“If unfortunately there is an escalation,” the archbishop said, “then thatʼs really to be deplored, but certainly … [officials must] keep [civilian harm] as minimal as possible and on the lowest level possible.”

While the Catholic liturgy is fairly uniform across Catholic parishes, some Mass attendees raise their hands in the “orans” posture of prayer or hold hands during the Our Father prayer, while others don’t. The Archdiocese of Portland through an official instruction has asked laypeople to refrain from doing either.

“Over the last few decades there has been some confusion as to whether the lay faithful should extend or raise their hands (and even holding hands with others) when the Lord’s Prayer is prayed during Mass, as the priest does,” stated the announcement in the Archdiocese of Portland’s November 2026 issue of its Divine Worship Newsletter.

“Neither the deacons assisting at Mass, nor the lay faithful, are ever instructed to use this posture,” the announcement continued. “It is a liturgical posture that is proper to the priest. When the priest uses this posture, he is praying on behalf of the people.”

In arriving at its decision, the archdiocese cited various Church documents and instructions concerning liturgical norms.

The archdiocese referred to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), a foundational Vatican document on liturgy.

“While the GIRM does not explicitly forbid the lay faithful from using the Orans posture during the Our Father, it gives guidance as to why the lay faithful should not use this posture,” the announcement read. “Whenever the GIRM gives the instructions for hands to be extended, it is always with reference to the priest specifically, whether it be the principal celebrant or concelebrants.”

The archdiocese also referenced instructions given in Vatican II documents.

“Further, the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, states that ‘no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.’ (SC 22.3),” the archdiocese continued. “Since the GIRM is very specific that the priest is instructed by the GIRM (152) to extend his hands when he prays the Lord’s Prayer, for the deacons or the laity to extend their hands would be adding to the liturgy.”

The archdiocese also referenced the Church’s guiding legal system, the Code of Canon Law.

“The Church gives further guidance on this issue. Code of Canon Law (CIC) 907 states, ‘In the Eucharistic celebration deacons and lay persons are not permitted to offer prayers, especially the Eucharistic prayer, or to perform actions which are proper to the celebrating priest,’” the document states.

Finally, the archdiocese cited tradition prior to the New Roman Missal of 1970.

“Prior to the New Roman Missal of 1970, only the priest prayed the Lord’s Prayer as a part of the Liturgy and had his hands extended while he prayed on behalf of the people. Nothing in the Roman Missal of 1970, nor the documents of the Second Vatican Council, indicated that there would be a change in posture during the Lord’s Prayer.”

Where does the ‘orans’ posture come from?

In the Catholic liturgy, the priest takes on the “orans” posture as a sign of praying on behalf of the people.

The posture was common in most ancient religions. In Christianity, it can be seen throughout Scripture, memorably in Exodus 17 when Moses lifts his hands during the battle against Amalek. While his hands are raised, the Israelites are winning, but when his hands fall, they start to lose the battle.

This posture can also be seen throughout some of the Psalms and in the New Testament as well. The “orans” posture of prayer is also depicted in early Christian art, including in the catacombs.

In a Nov. 8 interview with “60 Minutes” correspondent Ross Douthat, who is Catholic, Douthat steered the conversation from politics to mortality and the Gospel’s call to forgiveness.

Douthat pointedly asked Trump whether he could feel love and forgiveness for his nemeses, such as former FBI director James Comey and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, if doing so were required to enter paradise.

Trump said he still hates some of his enemies because of what he called their “weaponization” of the law against him.

Douthat pressed him on this point, asking again whether, before the judgment of God and after all that has been given to him, “you couldn’t find it in your heart to forgive some of your enemies?”

“Can I be honest?” Trump said. “I probably cannot do that now because I do hate some of my enemies and I always will.”

Father Gerald Murray, pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in New York, told EWTN News that he is praying the president will “come to understand that a man who dies hating his enemies risks losing Christ’s invitation to enter God’s presence in heaven.”

“The president of the United States is a believing Christian,” Murray said. “He knows that Jesus Christ commanded us to love our enemies and to forgive those who persecute us.”

“Hatred is not of God. Hatred harms the man who hates. Forgiveness draws that man closer to Christ who forgave all who hated him,” Murray underscored.

Catholic teaching holds that forgiveness is not optional for a Christian. Jesus commands: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt 5:44).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that mercy and forgiveness are essential to remaining in the state of grace and to final reconciliation with God. Persistent refusal to forgive, the Church holds, endangers the soul.

Father Gabriel Mosher, OP told EWTN News that it is possible that Trump’s “charmed life,” which Douthat in the interview suggested should enable him to forgive his enemies, might be the very reason Trump said he will not forgive. 

In his experience, Mosher said that “those who have both suffered much and who lack the power to seek retribution develop a greater capacity to forgive than others.”

“This command of Christ is one of the most difficult things to live out,” Mosher emphasized. “It requires a vulnerability that, perhaps, President Trump’s lifestyle doesn’t afford him.”

“The more we are conformed to Christ in his suffering, the more we are conformed to the One who forgave his enemies while crucified upon his victorious Cross,” he observed.

Douthat also asked what Trump believes will happen when he dies.

“You mean, where I go?” Trump replied. “I’m a religious person, so in theory, I go to heaven.”

When Douthat asked directly whether he thinks he is going to heaven, Trump answered: “I hope so. I don’t want to go to hell.”

In the aftermath of the interview, some Catholics expressed reservations about Douthat’s line of questioning.

Matt Mehan, a Catholic scholar at Hillsdale College, said that although he thought Douthat’s intent when asking Trump those questions was loving and honorable, “intention is not enough.”

Mehan contended that Douthat should not have asked the president such “deeply intimate questions” on national television and called putting Trump in such a position “inhumane.”

Luma Simms, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, agreed with Mehan, saying that “toying or probing (or whatever name you want to give it) with someone’s soul on television is actually neither honorable, nor respectful of another human being.”

Meanwhile, Laura Stalberg Gigliotti, a cultural commentator who uses the pseudonym Peachy Keenan, noted that “Christʼs exhortation to love not just your neighbors but your enemies, those who have hurt you, killed you, maligned you, is the hardest teaching in all of Christianity.”

Surveying the situation, Pillar Catholic editor JD Flynn mused that Douthat may very well have “managed to plant a seed in Trump — perhaps to leave the president wondering, at least, whether holding on to bitterness won’t be his final undoing.”

“I hope Ross planted a seed in us, too,” Flynn added, referencing the common challenge of all of humanity to ultimately let go of grudges and forgive.

Data collected by the agency alongside state investigators in September from the property of the Catholic Academy of Niagara Falls showed some results that were “near background levels of radiation.”

An agency spokeswoman told EWTN News that the school property, which is also home to Prince of Peace Parish, sits on land with radiation levels “not clearly below our levels of concern and not clearly above them.”

The agency “[doesn’t] have any reason to believe there is significant radiological material based on screening to date,” the EPA said. But “some areas did have slightly elevated levels and were identified for further sampling.”

The school, located in Niagara Falls, New York, is about eight miles from the government-owned Niagara Falls Storage Site. Among the materials on that site is nuclear residue from the United States’ production of the first nuclear bombs during World War II.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has recently undertaken remediation at the site. On its website the corps says it has removed more than 26,000 cubic yards of soil to be shipped to proper storage facilities.

The EPA said the evidence indicates the radiation levels at the school and church “are not cause for immediate concern.” The agency said it would be taking further sampling and was coordinating with the school in planning next steps.

“In response to concerns expressed by parents, agencies have coordinated with the school administration to do further radiological surveying … on the outside and the inside of the school using instrumentation specifically calibrated to assess any potential exposure to radiological contamination,” the agency said.

The school did not respond to a request for comment on the situation. But the radiation levels have aroused concerns in the school community, according to local media.

Jocelyn McKiernan, whose son attends the Catholic school, told local news station WIVB that her family was seeking “full transparency” from the school regarding the controversy.

“We deserve to know what’s there, how much radioactive waste has been discovered, and if it’s inside the building or not,” she told the network.

McKiernan was reportedly escorted from the school after showing up seeking to meet with the school’s principal. Meanwhile, McKiernan and her husband, Daniel, had reportedly discovered in July that their own property may have toxic contaminants from three decades ago. 

The school said in a Nov. 4 newsletter to families that school leadership had met with officials from both the EPA and the state government to examine the government’s findings.

It said further testing would be done when school was not in session and that results were expected back within three months.

The Diocese of Buffalo, where the school is located, told EWTN News on Nov. 10 that the school’s principal Johanna Richards “informed parents and the entire school community as soon as the results of the initial screening was accomplished and results known.”

“Admittedly, she now feels that she could have informed parents that the testing was scheduled,” diocesan spokesman Gregory Tucker said, though he noted that “there is regular testing underway throughout the community as a result of this legacy environmental issue,” and as such Richards “did not think at the time that it was necessary” to announce the testing.

The school is “being as communicative as possible about this issue and with the aim of providing as much reassurance as they can at this stage,” he said.
"Everyone is in this together and understandably wants to get to a definitive determination that there is no threat to the school community.”

This story was updated on Nov. 10, 2026 at 1:50 p.m. EST with a statement from the Diocese of Buffalo.

On Nov. 6, Healey attached an emergency preamble to an all-nine-months abortion bill she signed Aug. 10, which under the state constitution made the new law take effect immediately.

Her action also prevented the suspension of the new abortion law pending a statewide referendum on it expected in November 2028.

In a 1,400-word Substack article, Healey justified her decision to enact the abortion bill immediately, citing her Catholicism.

“I am Catholic, and my faith is an important part of who I am. It has shaped my understanding of service, responsibility and our obligation to care for others. My faith teaches me to meet people with compassion, respect their dignity, and approach suffering with humility,” Healey wrote.

“I am also Governor for people of every faith and belief,” she continued. “My responsibility is to ensure that every family can make deeply personal medical decisions according to their own circumstances, values and the guidance of their doctors.”

Over the weekend, Boston Archbishop Richard Henning and the bishops who lead the state’s three other Catholic dioceses criticized Healey’s rationale.

“Having read the Governor’s editorial defending her decision to override the results of the Repeal 188 efforts, we respectfully and passionately disagree that abortion, the taking of human life, may be considered health care,” they said Nov. 7 in a written statement.

“We also disagree that there is an emergency requiring the further expansion of the existing and already radically permissive law,” the bishops said. The letter was also signed by Worcester Bishop Robert McManus, Fall River Bishop Edgar da Cunha, and Springfield Bishop William Byrne.

‘Utilitarian and merciless approach’

Before Healey’s action, Massachusetts state abortion law, which was amended in 2020, previously allowed unlimited abortions up to 24 weeks and after that to save the life or the “physical or mental health” of the mother or if “the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside the uterus.”

The new statute enacted by the governor removes those limitations, stating instead that abortions at any time in pregnancy “may be performed by a physician based upon the professional judgment of the physician.”

The state’s bishops noted that Pope Leo XIV recently told leaders in Uruguay that the unborn “already belong to the human family” and that their dependence on their mother “does not diminish the dignity to which they are entitled or the protection they deserve.”

“We call upon the legislators who crafted and passed this bill, and all men and women of good will, to reconsider the troubling state of our culture and its utilitarian and merciless approach to the elderly, the sick, the vulnerable, and the unborn,” the Massachusetts bishops said. “As Pope Leo put it: ‘The right to life is the indispensable foundation of every other human right.’”

A spokesman for Healey contacted by the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, referred questions about the bishops’ criticism of her to Healey’s Substack article.

Repeal effort on hold

Opponents of the new abortion measure, which is known as Chapter 188 of Massachusetts General Laws, collected more than 100,000 signatures of registered voters earlier this fall to challenge it.

Under the state constitution, that’s more than double the number needed to stop a law from going into effect unless the governor enacts it immediately with an emergency preamble, as Healey did.

As for the pro-lifers’ signature campaign, Healey wrote: “The repeal campaign can continue its work, and Massachusetts voters will have their say. If they choose to repeal the law, we will respect their decision. But families should not have to go without the care they need while that process plays out.”

A spokesman for the secretary of state’s office said it would likely take a week or two to certify the signatures that would trigger the statewide referendum on the all-nine-months abortion statute two years from now.

Myrna Maloney Flynn, the president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, told EWTN News that the state constitution “does not include any mechanisms for reversal” of an emergency preamble. But she said pro-life advocates there “are undeterred.”

“Though we all share a deep sadness at the distorted messaging women are already hearing more frequently since [the passage of the law], from an industry that aims to profit from their vulnerability, we know truth will ultimately mute false claims,” she said. 

“And as we prepare our hearts for the imminent loss of life, each of us recognizes the new opportunities for ultimate victory,” she continued. “Iʼve been moved to see that Massachusetts residents are not walking away but stepping up once again, more determined than ever.”

“Weʼve got a two-year campaign ahead of us, and I am confident that we will have a formidable team to help us repeal Governor Healeyʼs full-term abortion law in 2028,” she said.

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

The letter — addressed to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York — was signed by 91 Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

“The election of Pope Leo XIV serves as a sign of great pride for millions of Americans,” the letter said. “As the first ever American-born Pope, his unique perspective, and ties to our country, would serve as a unifying force for members of Congress.”

“Following a divisive election, Pope Leo’s unifying message of service, compassion for fellow mankind, and the importance of human dignity would be especially timely,” the letter added.

The lawmakers wrote that a visit from the Holy Father “would offer a much-needed outlook as we navigate complex foreign and domestic issues.”

“Given the undeniable historical significance and cultural impact of Pope Francis’s address to Congress in 2015, we urge you to work to schedule a joint address as soon as possible in the beginning of the 120th Congress with the first American-born Pope,” the letter added.

Neither Johnson’s nor Jeffries’ offices immediately responded to EWTN News’ request for comment.

A decision to invite a pope to address Congress has come from congressional leadership in the past, often together with the executive branch, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). “No formal procedure on when or how to issue invitations is codified in law or in House or Senate rules,” according to CRS.

‘Looking at the calendar’

The Chicago-born pontiff does not have a visit to the United States on his schedule yet but did say in June that he intends to travel to the country soon: “We were looking at the calendar for the next couple of years. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I certainly hope to be there soon.”

In July, Leo honored the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by penning a letter that said that moment “gave enduring voice to the ideals of liberty, equality, the pursuit of happiness, justice, and democratic self-government.” He also accepted the National Constitution Center’s 2026 Liberty Medal.

Leo is visiting South America until Nov. 17. His first stop was Uruguay and he is  in Argentina until Nov. 11. The final stop for this trip will be Peru, where the Holy Father spent more than 20 years of his adult life.

Pope Francis visited the United States in 2015, as did Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. St. John Paul II visited the country seven times during his long 26-year papacy.

The annual conference takes place in November or December and this year takes place from Nov. 9–20.

The statement was issued by Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, along with President and CEO of Catholic Relief Services Sean Callahan.

“As leaders gather at COP31, we recognize the need for decisive action that will protect and promote human flourishing and our common home. The global Church continues to witness the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” they wrote. “We accompany those most impacted by a changing climate and the resulting extreme weather, rising seas, and biodiversity loss.”

They pointed out that young people in particular “are leading this response, demanding climate justice for their generation and generations to come,” adding that “their witness is our hope: proof that our faith in action answers the hardest realities.”

The Catholic leaders recalled Pope Leo XIV’s message shared during last year’s conference in which he said that God’s creation is “crying out in floods, droughts, storms, and relentless heat.”

“He also reminded us that it is not the Paris Agreement that is failing, but our collective response to it — and that to overlook communities most exposed to climate change is to deny our shared humanity,” the statement said.

“We urge world leaders and institutions to deliver additional climate finance that prioritizes grants over loans so that poor countries can invest in resilience and adaptation without the weight of more debt,” the statement said. “We implore negotiators to agree on how progress on adaptation will be measured within the Global Goal on Adaptation. We call on them to finalize a ‘just transition’ mechanism to accompany developing countries with expertise, cooperation, and funding as they move away from fossil fuels.”

“This transition should center on protecting the dignity of every worker, family, and community affected.”

The statement concluded: “Echoing the call of our Holy Father, we ask leaders to leave Antalya having matched the scale of their commitments to the scale of the need — and to remember, in every negotiating room, that behind every number is a family making difficult, daily decisions on survival amidst more extreme, erratic, and frequent climate shocks.”

The Irish Bishops’ Conference also issued a statement last week urging the Irish delegation attending the COP31 to recognize the “important role” Ireland plays in “safeguarding our common home.”

The Irish bishops urged the country’s delegation to advocate for four specific topics: climate finance and social justice, clean energy investment and sufficiency, fossil fuel phase-out, and fossil fuel profit tax.

The COP31 is expected to draw roughly 100,000 participants including heads of states, heads of governments, prime ministers, vice presidents, climate ministers, negotiators, scientists, corporate executives, and nongovernmental organizations like Greenpeace and WWF.

The conference is being led by COP31 president and Turkey’s Environment Minister Murat Kurum. Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen is presiding over negotiations, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened the summit.

This is the second consecutive year that the United States lacks an official government delegation at the summit due to the Trump administration’s withdrawal from climate pacts. However, some U.S. governors, lawmakers, and business leaders will be in attendance independently.

The Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania is an organization established in 1949 to recognize women for their distinguished service, professional achievements, and voluntary contributions to Pennsylvania and the nation.

Bisbey entered religious life in 1967 and in 1987 began teaching in higher education. In 1992 she became a professor of religious studies at La Roche University.

In the 1990s, she and another religious sister from her congregation — Sister Elana Almendarez — decided to start fostering children in response to a high need for foster parents. At the time, they had a large home that they lived in for over a decade on the campus of La Roche University and decided to use this space to care for one to three children at a time.

The sisters have fostered 28 children since 1992.

Over the years, the sisters fostered children with special needs and complex medical conditions. They are currently permanent legal custodians to a 20-year-old woman named Amanda who has spina bifida and other medical conditions. She has been with them since 2008.

“I receive this honor with deep gratitude, but I do so standing on the shoulders of generations of Sisters of Divine Providence and women religious who have quietly served others for centuries,” Bisbey said in a press release about her award given on Oct. 7.

She added: “Our charism calls us to trust in the Providence of God and to be participants in God’s abundance, not simply its beneficiaries. Everything I have been given through my sisters, my students, and the children who have come into my life has only multiplied in the sharing.”

During their time fostering children, the sisters have seen some of the children return to their biological parents, others were adopted, and others aged out of the system. However, many still keep in touch. According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, one young man who was raised by the sisters since he was a young child now works in Tennessee and keeps in touch with them on a daily basis.

In addition to her foster ministry, Bisbey speaks nationally and internationally about social justice and serving the underserved. She also helped her congregation build a new home for aging sisters; the Commons at Providence Heights is an 83-bed facility that provides care for aging sisters as well as members of the community.

Bisbey currently serves as provincial director of the Marie de la Roche Province of the Sisters of Divine Providence, providing spiritual and organizational leadership to the congregation, and as vice chair of the La Roche University Board of Trustees.

The film, streaming now on EWTN’s new on-demand digital platform EWTN+, is must-watch TV — not only for any serious single Catholic but also for all those Catholic parents of single adult children praying for a good Catholic partner to walk into their child’s life.

It is a short film, but a big topic. And the situation is urgent. According to the film, for the first time in American history, more people are single than married.

“The Dating Project” puts flesh and blood to this demographic red flag by following four distinct groups.

First, there are young people in college experiencing “adulting” for the first time and finding that the collegiate “hookup culture” has replaced traditional dating.

Next, we meet a woman in her mid-20s. She has not been on a date in years, and when she did last go on one, what the young man wanted was not what she was looking for.

Then there is the vibrant career woman in her 30s who works 70 hours a week, lives in the hectic world of New York City, and has little time for anything resembling a romantic relationship.

Finally, there is a single man pushing 40 who has never been married and is actively trying to find someone from online dating services.

Boston College scholar Kerry Cronin is the film’s tour guide into the dateless culture we reside in and has become kind of a legend on campus with her “Dating Assignment” class.

To pass the class, a student must ask someone out for a date and do it face-to-face — no DMs or texts. Simply asking someone out for a cup of coffee is a passing grade.

As the film shows, especially among college-age students, they do not really know what dating is, and few of them in the film recall ever having gone on one.

There are so many obstacles in their way: The solitary-inducing effects of the internet, the loosening bind of traditional extended families, and the breakdown of social support systems have made the traditional concept of dating seem, well, dated.

But as Cronin makes clear to her students, getting back to basics is a pathway to a real relationship. Like all worthy journeys, the first steps are the smallest.

If one is looking for an example of how far afield this concept has become for college-aged young adults, they might check out the latest headlines from the sordid affair on the Cornell University campus.

But if dating has been left to atrophy, the desire among people to forge relationships has not. Cronin identifies her students’ main challenge: For the past two generations, the culture has been telling people that relationships and sex are “no big deal.”

Cronin counters that those two “deals” are actually huge. The young college people in the film, having lived their lives with TV sitcoms, movies, and music selling them the opposite view, seem to have an inner desire for the professor’s view, if her overflowing lecture hall is any indication.

As the film’s writer and producer Megan Harrington puts it, “The film offers viewers hope, inspiration, and tools for navigating the relationship landscape.”

Since we did not get to this point overnight, it will take time and more efforts like Cronin’s to re-prioritize the “big deals” when it comes to relationships. To that end, the production company has also launched a YouTube series called “Dating Decoded: Beyond the Dating Project” that dives deeper into the film’s themes, including unseen footage from the original.

This story was first published by Angelus News. It has been adapted by EWTN News and reprinted here with permission.

“Abortion says to women: ‘You can’t be a good mom.’ It’s a lie,” she said. “The pro-life movement says the opposite.”

The organization connects services that already exist within communities so that pregnant women and new mothers who want to choose life can receive the practical support they need.

“At Her PLAN, we do the ‘life’ piece of the pro-life movement,” Stephens said. “We help moms to choose life, and to sustain it.”

With the approach of the U.S. bishops’ Pregnancy Help Appreciation Week from Nov. 9–13, Stephens, marketing and communications director at Her PLAN, spoke with EWTN News about the organization’s mission and how her faith informs her work there.

Her PLAN, founded in 2020 and headquartered in Virginia, assesses women’s needs across seven key areas, aiming to strengthen community-based resources that can meet those needs at the time of a crisis pregnancy and for years afterward.

The seven areas are women’s health; care coordination and pregnancy support; prenatal diagnosis; material or legal support; finances, work, and education; recovery and mental health; and care for children.

“How can we provide those things to her in that moment of crisis and years down the road, so that she can make the choice for life?” Stephens said.

The organization does not provide direct services itself. Instead, it identifies assets already present in local communities, building a directory of life-affirming, credentialed, and trustworthy providers. It also looks for gaps in needed services, such as transportation, housing, or childcare, and then works with communities to fill those gaps.

Her PLAN’s directory currently spans 29 states and contains more than 8,000 listings of vetted, life-affirming providers, Stephens said. The organization has coordinators on the ground in nine states: Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Nebraska. There, they meet community stakeholders, facilitate workshops, and help identify needs and existing resources.

In states without a coordinator, the Pathways platform, launched in June, offers a 10-question quiz that gives those with a desire to help mothers in need a place to begin.

“People often want to help in a concrete way but don’t know where to start,” Stephens said. “The problem feels too big, and they might think: ‘I can’t open a maternity home, so I won’t do anything.’”

The Pathways platform offers practical ideas so individuals and parishes can start helping mothers in concrete ways, whether with a support group, a food pantry, job assistance or financial help, or a day of free car maintenance.

Stephens said that transportation is one of the biggest barriers many mothers face: “If they don’t have a working car, they can’t get to work or drive their children to school.”

She described car maintenance days, an effort supported by Her PLAN, where mechanics volunteer their time, often with the assistance of a local church, as “a practical way everyday people can use their skills and expertise” to help mothers with a very real need.

Stephens, who keeps St. John Paul II’s quote “Be not afraid!” up in her office, said her Catholic faith shapes her work and mission. “I’ve always had a heart for this. I always recognized, from my parents, the intimate beauty and worth every human life has. I’ve always wanted to protect that.”

Her PLAN is a project of the SBA Pro-Life America Education Fund and is a secular group, but Stephens said “the pro-life work we do here is inherently Catholic in many ways” because of its “fundamental belief in the worth of every human being.”

She said the group also offers churches a 30-day prayer guide to assist them in discerning what needs mothers have and how to help them.

The U.S. bishops recently recognized the “heroic” work of pregnancy help centers and resource help centers such as Her PLAN.

In a statement issued Oct. 27 in anticipation of Pregnancy Help Appreciation Week, Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, thanked those who provide “necessary resources to women, babies, and families during pregnancy and beyond.”

Earlier this year, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries promised healthcare would be one of the top Democratic priorities for 2027 and created a Cost-of-Living Healthcare Working Group to develop a legislative plan, led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Alabama.

Based on a memo developed by the working group and obtained by Politico in late September, Democratic plans to codify the now-defunct Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which made abortion legal nationwide, and plans for tax-funded elective abortions, “should be considered for advancement in the first 100 hours” of the legislative session.

“Reestablish a federal right to abortion care and end restrictions that prevent people covered through federal health programs from receiving abortion coverage,” read the memo, which is dated Sept. 1 and was published by Politico on Sept. 25.

EWTN News reached out to Ocasio-Cortez’s office and Sewell’s office to ask whether this is still the plan but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The White House provided a statement to EWTN News when asked about Democrats’ plans to prioritize abortion legislation but did not specifically say whether President Donald Trump would veto any pro-abortion bills.

“The Trump Administration is committed to Gold Standard Science, as outlined in detail by President Trump’s Executive Order, ‘Restoring Gold Standard Science,’” White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster said in the statement. “The mifepristone safety review by the FDA is just one example of President Trumpʼs total commitment to ensuring the health and safety of all Americans.”

2 bills for immediate consideration

One bill the working group suggests Democrats consider to advance in the first 100 hours is the Women’s Health Protection Act, which was first introduced in 2013 to codify Roe. This bill would declare abortion “a human right” and prevent state governments from restricting abortion before fetal viability, which is typically in the 23rd or 24th week of pregnancy.

According to the 2025 version of the bill, viability is when the unborn child can survive outside of the womb. Whether the unborn child is viable would be determined by “the treating health care provider,” who is typically the abortionist.

Although some post-viability abortion restrictions would be allowed, all state laws would need to allow abortion through the ninth month of pregnancy if “the treating health care provider,” who is typically the abortionist, deems it necessary to protect “the life or health of the patient.” The text is unclear as to what qualifies as a threat to the patient’s health.

If this bill were to become law, it would immediately invalidate state-level pro-life laws across the country.

“It would sweep aside state protections for unborn children,” Laura Echevarria, communications director National Right to Life, told EWTN News.

She said the bill would “take away the ability for [people’s] elected representatives … [to] protect babies before viability.” And after viability, she said abortions would be allowed “if the abortionist determines the abortion is necessary.”

Echevarria said the text used in the bill offers a “very broad definition” for the health exemption and warned that it could include not just physical health complications but also mental health complications, as determined by the abortionist.

The second bill the working group suggests Democrats consider within the first 100 hours is the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act, which would add abortion coverage to tax-funded health insurance plans for government workers and people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Childrenʼs Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Essentially, the bill would eliminate the Hyde Amendment, which has been included in spending bills since 1976 to prohibit federal funds for elective abortions. Although the ban on tax-funded abortion originally had bipartisan support, Democrats have sought to eliminate the ban in recent years.

Echevarria said the EACH Act would “require abortion coverage across specific government health programs,” with the goal being to eliminate Hyde. She said: “The federal government would ensure that abortion would be covered, so it’s very broad and very sweeping.”

She said the Democrats’ plan to prioritize these bills is “disappointing” but “not surprising.” She said that although the Democratic Party used to welcome pro-life voices, “now it’s the party that encourages women to ‘shout their abortion.’”

“It used to be we had more pro-life Democrats in the House years ago, [but] the Democratic Party has not welcomed pro-lifers in years,” Echevarria said. “So they are not welcoming that viewpoint.”

Kelsey Pritchard, the communications director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement to EWTN News that this agenda shows “pro-abortion Democrat extremism will be on full display next Congress.”

In addition to the two bills included in the memo, Pritchard said: “We also anticipate efforts to revive the expansion of Obamacare subsidies that further taxpayer funded abortion coverage, another avenue for more babies to die at the hands of the federal government.”

The incoming members of Congress will be sworn in at noon on Jan. 3, 2027. Although not all of the results are finalized, Democrats will have at least 253 seats in the House and at least 54 seats in the Senate.

James “Jimmy” Stewart was a beloved American actor best known for his portrayal of George Bailey in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” But at the height of his Hollywood career, Stewart put acting on hold to serve his country during World War II. The new film explores this transformative chapter of his life and how his wartime experiences would later influence his iconic portrayal of the family man from Bedford Falls.

Stewart served in the military from 1941 to 1945, eventually deploying to England in 1943 as a heavy bomber pilot with the United States Army Air Forces. Assigned to the Eighth Air Force, he rose to become a squadron and group commander and flew the B-24 Liberator on 20 combat missions over occupied Europe, including raids on targets such as Berlin.

He would later serve as a strategic bomber officer and attain the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

It was Stewart’s service to his country that inspired director Aaron Burns to create the new film.

In an interview with EWTN News at the premiere of “Jimmy,” Burns shared that he grew up watching Stewart’s movies but he had “no idea that the life he lived was every bit as interesting — maybe even more so — than the films he made.”

“I read an article that Jimmy wrote about this period of his life and how ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ was the first movie he made when he came back from serving in World War II,” he added. “And I had no idea that Jimmy was in a war and so it uncovered, for me, a whole new chapter to explore.”

For Kelly Stewart-Harcourt — one of Stewart’s daughters — her initial reaction upon hearing someone wanted to make a biopic on her father was that it would be “boring because he had a scandal-free life.”

“But then, when it was focused on this particular chapter of his life, then I started thinking more about it,” she said. “My biggest concern was, ‘Would dad approve?’ And I think, it doesn’t glorify war, it tells a really true story, and I think he would approve.”

Stewart-Harcourt also recalled the role her father’s faith played in his life professionally as an actor, during his service, and as a father and husband.

“Faith was very important to dad. He didn’t wear it on his sleeve. He was very quietly religious but he went to church every single Sunday … A few times, I would burst into the bedroom to tell him something, and it would be before he was going to bed, and he would be kneeling at the bed like a little boy saying his prayers.”

She added that he often told her that his faith is what “gave him great strength and comfort.”

KJ Apa, the actor who portrays Stewart in the film, shared that taking on this role impacted the way in which he thinks about what it truly means to live a meaningful life.

He admitted that in his early 20s he got “caught up for the wrong reasons” in the entertainment industry. Now, as a father and in a committed relationship, it “puts things in perspective.”

“At the end of the day, what it comes down to is what kind of person you are behind closed doors. That’s who you really are. I can say with certainty that Jimmy was that same guy behind closed doors and hopefully it inspires other people to practice what you preach, in a way,” he said.

Apa added: “Because in a time where people like to capitalize on fame, and one opportunity, and they’re very quick to kind of forget about everything else in order to gain this thing that’s going to make them huge — this story kind of shows the opposite of what that looks like, to throw that away and be like I’m doing this because itʼs the right thing to do. It’s pretty cool. It’s the ultimate to me. It’s the ultimate story.”

Karolyn Grimes, the actress who played ZuZu Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” recalled her time working alongside Stewart and called him “an angel on earth” and that the beloved American Christmas classic “was a gift to people.”

She said she hopes viewers will “realize that there is kindness in this world and there is goodness. Sometimes you have to look for it, but it’s there.”

“Jimmy was the epitome of kindness and he set such a wonderful example that I hope they could take that away from him and maybe make some changes in their lives to be more of a good Samaritan and to give of themselves more,” Grimes added.

Hien Papaian, the founder of the production studio behind the film, Papaian Studios, shared similar sentiments. She told EWTN News that she hopes viewers will see “the kindness and the love that exudes from every part of this movie. Again we can disagree, we can have differences, but we can love each other through that and still unite in kindness.”

As for Stewart-Harcourt, she said she hopes viewers will come to see “how very honorable” her father was.

“Jimmy” can be watched in theaters nationwide now. Veterans, active-duty military, first responders, and their families can receive free tickets to see the film.

Instagram post

Exit polling data released by NBC News shows the Catholic vote almost equally split between Democratic and Republican politicians this year, with the network reporting 50% of Catholic voters choosing Democrats and 49% choosing Republicans.

The even split marks a notable departure from the 2024 presidential election, which saw just 39% of Catholic voters casting ballots for Democrat Kamala Harris and 59% of them voting for Republican Donald Trump, according to NBC data from that year.

Andrew Chestnut, the Bishop Walter F. Sullivan chair in Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, told EWTN News that the results represent a “notable shift” from 2024, though “it remains to be seen whether this represents a lasting political realignment.”

He noted that a closer read of polling data reveals a more nuanced view of the Catholic voting bloc.

“The preliminary exit polls underscore the considerable diversity of American Catholicism, with 56% of white Catholics voting Republican compared with 65% of Hispanic Catholics who favored Democrats,” he said.

“Equally noteworthy is the generational divide, with 65% of Catholics under 29 voting Democratic,” he said, though he pointed out that “younger voters' preferences do not necessarily predict their political allegiances later in life.”

The stronger Latino Catholic vote for Democrats likely reflects a response to Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, Chestnut said. The president’s public criticism of Pope Leo XIV earlier in the year “could also have influenced some voters,” he noted, though “the extent of either effect is difficult to establish.”

Though the Catholic vote in the midterms broke markedly from 2024, the 2026 numbers are similar to other recent elections in which NBC obtained exit polling data. Exit polling in 2016 showed 46% of Catholics voting for Hillary Clinton that year and 50% voting for Trump, while in 2020 Catholics voted for Democrat Joe Biden over Trump by a 52% to 47% margin.

Though Catholics were evenly divided between both major parties in 2026, other religions broke heavily for Democrats, according to the exit poll data.

Muslim voters reported voting Democratic 86% of the time, according to the network’s data, while 68% of Jewish voters cast Democratic ballots.

Those who identified their religious affiliation as “none,” meanwhile, were 78% in favor of Democrats, with just 20% voting Republican.

Chestnut said high Democratic support from “nones” reflects the “growing electoral significance of religiously unaffiliated Americans,” while high Muslim support “point[s] to the diversity of the partyʼs religious coalition.”

Regarding the Catholic vote, meanwhile, “ultimately, the results reinforce the importance of Catholics as a potentially pivotal constituency whose voting patterns reflect differences in ethnicity, generation, and political outlook, rather than any unified Catholic political identity,” he said.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the archdiocese, spoke about the inaugural Catholic Military Conference in an interview with “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Veronica Dudo. He said the event, whose theme is “Living and Serving Justly,” is intended to bring together the faithful of the archdiocese, which is one of the most geographically widespread in the world.

“We wanted to invite the faithful from this archdiocese to gather together in northern Virginia, suburban Washington … for a conference on living justly … and basically practicing the Catholic faith, but with an eye very much to military service,” Broglio said.

“‘Justly,’” he said, “means to live in accordance with the law of God, which is a basic tenet of our faith. It means allowing our conscience to dictate how we respond to the situations that we’re called to face.”

He said a central topic will be just war theory and its ramifications in the present day, saying it will be a “good opportunity to review” the Church’s teachings on just war for “those who are on active duty” as well as to respond to any questions service members may have about the teachings.

Broglio noted that the gathering represents a shift from the archdiocese’s usual practice: “Normally the auxiliary bishops and I visit the faithful where they are. This is one of the first times that we’re inviting them to come and join us all together for an archdiocesan gathering.”

The conference will also include a synodal exercise aimed at listening to the faithful about their concerns and needs.

Participants will have opportunities for daily Mass, confession, Eucharistic adoration, and breakout sessions on different aspects of military life and living the faith. He also said attendees will share meals, because to “break bread together” is “a happy part of human human encounters and human endeavors.”

For Catholic service members deployed around the world who cannot attend in person, the archdiocese plans to record as much of the conference as possible, Broglio said.

In a publicly released letter, Newsom said he had “decided to exercise [his] constitutional clemency authority to commute all California death sentences to life without the possibility of parole.”

The Democratic governor, who identifies as Catholic, said in the letter that he had come to “firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values,” that it “undermines the foundations of our legal system,” and that it “diminishes each of us.”

The governor described life in prison without parole as “the most severe punishment I can lawfully impose.” The convicted criminals “will die in prison but not by our hand,” he said.

The commutation covered all 548 prisoners condemned to death in the state. Newsom’s executive order in 2019 ensured executions would not occur while he remained governor.

Responding to the news on Nov. 5, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, called the decision “an incredibly encouraging and historic witness for life and human dignity.” She described the order as “the largest commutation in world history.”

The Catholic group regularly advocates death sentence commutations and the national abolition of the death penalty itself. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states bluntly that the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”

Vaillancourt Murphy in her statement said the mass clemency “demonstrates how justice can be rooted in mercy and restoration instead of death and retribution.”

Newsom “has given each of [the condemned criminals] a tangible sign of hope and a chance for rehabilitation,” she said.

The decision “underscores the sacred value” of the lives of the prisoners, she said, though she stressed the need to “bear witness to the incomparable suffering that the families and loved ones of murder victims endure.”

“We hear the cry for justice and accountability that grave harm rightly deserves, and we continue to hold them in prayer,” Vaillancourt Murphy said.

Newsom in his statement noted that the state Supreme Court will have to weigh in on some of the commutations according to the state constitution, though the governor said he was “confident that this act of categorical clemency” was in line with state law.

In a Nov. 5 message, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops congratulated the winners, telling them that the bishops are praying “that God grants them wisdom as they take on the responsibilities of public office.”

The bishops reiterated their legislative priorities in a previously finalized agenda: “As we look ahead to the 90th Texas Legislative Session, the principles of Catholic social and moral teaching that guide our work remain unchanged,” the bishops wrote. They said they will continue to advocate for policies that “uphold human dignity, strengthen families, care for the vulnerable and creation, and promote the common good.”

In the agenda, the bishops stated: “Human life is intrinsically valuable and should be protected by law from conception, which happens at fertilization, to natural death. Moreover, the natural family is the sanctuary of life in which parents teach children how they ought to live.”

Specific policy positions the bishops took in their legislative agenda include supporting funding for abortion alternatives and assistance for parents (including kinship, foster, and adoptive families); opposing euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy; and opposing “the advancement of gender ideology, especially in places where young people are affected.” They also promoted safeguards for “the inviolable dignity of the human person through the ethical development of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” and reasonable steps to address gun-related violence.

The bishops stated they continue to oppose “efforts to weaken the protection of unborn human life.”

Newly elected attorney general says he won’t enforce Texas abortion laws

These stances come as the incoming Democratic administration is expected to pursue pro-abortion measures.

Attorney general-elect and pro-abortion Democrat Nathan Johnson has already said he will not continue outgoing Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuits against out-of-state providers who have illegally mailed abortion pills into Texas, saying he will respect other states’ shield laws but will not enforce Texas’ pro-life laws.

John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, a Christian pro-life advocacy group, called Johnson’s position “absolutely ridiculous.”

“His new job as attorney general is to enforce the laws of Texas, regardless of his personal feelings about them,” Seago told EWTN News.

“The abortion pill trafficking enables abusive men that are ordering pills from other states and sneaking them into the drinks of Texas mothers,” he said. “Nathan Johnson is taking a position that he will defend an industry that enables this type of assault on Texas’ pregnant women.”

Johnson did not respond to a request for comment from EWTN News by the time of publication.

‘Remain engaged in civic life’

Separately, Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio issued his own postelection statement. He recalled the U.S. bishops’ preelection call for Catholics to place faith before politics and noted that Pope Leo XIV cast a mail-in ballot from the Vatican.

The archbishop highlighted issues the Holy Father has emphasized: “protecting human life; protecting religious freedom and human rights; promoting the family; upholding the human dignity of all, including migrants and prisoners; and also promoting political dialogue and building consensus, so that we may find common ground among our diversity.”

“Following [Tuesday’s] election results, I strongly encourage all to remain actively engaged in civic life,” García-Siller wrote. “Let us further the Biblical values of the Kingdom. We do not need more division after a particularly bruising campaign season, but rather, we need unity to be fostered in order to move forward in freedom to discuss difficult topics more deeply in light of the Gospel.”

He ended his statement with prayers for peace and for all officeholders to receive “wisdom and discernment from the Holy Spirit,” invoking Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas and of the archdiocese, to help “build up a civilization of love.”

Republicans retained control of the Texas Senate, a fact noted by some pro-life advocates as a potential check on legislative changes.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said Father Laurence LaPointe, 81, admitted to the abuse after an investigation led by the attorney general’s office.

The prosecutor’s office said in a release that LaPointe pleaded guilty on Nov. 4 to a fourth-degree sex offense and common-law assault.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Charles Dorsey III sentenced the priest to three years in prison, which the judge immediately suspended; LaPointe was also sentenced to five years of supervised probation.

Among the terms of his probation is the stipulation that LaPointe “have no direct contact with minors under the age of 18” and that he “not volunteer or work in any educational setting involving individuals under the age of 18.”

LaPointe’s victim offered a victim impact statement during the court proceedings, according to the attorney general’s office; the victim said that with the guilty plea, the “heavy burden” of the priest’s abuse “passes from me to [LaPointe].”

“I hope he will find the courage to acknowledge any other misconduct, voluntarily and fully, without requiring other victims to endure years of investigation, the prospect of a trial, and the emotional burden of having to prove what happened to them,” the victim said.

“Those who were sexually assaulted as children continue to carry the burden of that trauma long after they reach adulthood,” Brown said in the press release. “No matter how much time passes, we will help lift that weight off survivors’ shoulders and hold accountable anyone who abuses a position of trust to inflict such devastating harm on our children.”

LaPointe is currently a priest in the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut. The diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his status there.

The Norwich Diocese had announced that LaPointe had been placed on ministry leave in March when the allegations surfaced. He had been serving as pastor of Corpus Christi Parish at the time.

In a surprise defeat in the governor’s race, former state legislator Gina Hinojosa defeated three-time incumbent Greg Abbott, who was first elected in 2014. In 2021, he signed into law the Texas Heartbeat Act, which banned abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detectable (around six weeks).

While both Hinojosa and Abbott are Catholic, Hinojosa is pro-abortion, voting against the Heartbeat Act and saying she would sign a bill repealing Texas’ abortion law if it came to her desk, though she has expressed that would be unlikely due to the Republican-majority Legislature. Republicans retained the state Senate but lost their majority in the House.

She said in September that expanding abortion access will not be a priority for her as governor because it will take more than her election to get Texas out of the “deep hole” itʼs in regarding what she calls “reproductive rights.”

Pro-life advocates warn of setbacks, see opportunities

John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, a Christian pro-life advocacy group, told EWTN News the election results dealt a “devastating blow” to the pro-life movement in Texas, though he said it was not an “utter disaster” because Republicans, many of whom are pro-life, hung on to the state Senate. He said that will provide “a backstop to kill legislation that would move the pro-life movement backwards.”

Seago said the major political change is an opportunity for those who defend life to explain “even more passionately and articulately” why it is so important to do so.

In a message to its supporters, the organization wrote: “We cannot simply focus on elections and expect our culture to change by itself. We must make the case for life in our churches, our communities, and our everyday conversations.”

Seago said the Republican Party is to blame for the massive electoral shift, saying “the only discussion about abortion in Texas in this election came from [U.S. Senate candidate] James Talarico, who claimed God gave Mary the choice to abort Jesus and said the Bible is silent on abortion.”

“Democrats appeared moderate, while Republicans stayed silent,” he said. “That sent a message to pro-lifers that they had a choice between two equal candidates.”

He said Texas Right to Life will now focus its efforts on making sure the Republican-majority state Senate blocks “bad” bills, emphasizing the group will be “vigilant” in working with senators.

He said even in the Democrat-controlled house, the organization will try to make progress on other pro-life issues where there is bipartisan support and “where the Democrats are usually right there with us,” including protecting patients’ rights, improving foster care and adoption services, and supporting nonprofits that help women.

Anthony Joseph, a history professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, told EWTN News that Catholics “who’ve been buoyed by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision are being painfully reminded yet again that the democratic process often morally misfires and creates innocent human casualties.”

“Voters often are simply unaware of the harm they are doing,” he said.

Joseph said “one consolation for pro-lifers is that Dobbs allowed states to protect unborn children, and the protective laws that resulted in some states will not easily be repealed.”

“In Texas, the state Senate will likely continue to have a pro-life majority but Catholics must continue to urge these legislators to uphold current Texas law,” he said.

Catholics in those states need “to double and triple their outreach” to state legislators to ensure that these laws stay on the books, he said.

Parental rights and education policy at risk

Hinojosa opposes Abbott’s Texas Freedom of Education Act, which expanded school choice through vouchers parents can use at private schools, calling it a “payout for the privileged” because she says it takes money away from public schools and favors the rich.

Joseph said school vouchers encourage religious freedom and empower parents, who, as the Church teaches, bear the primary responsibility for the education of their children.

“Parents should have more say in where and how their children are educated,” Joseph said, highlighting that low-income parents who live in neighborhoods with failing public schools especially benefit from the program.

Susan Hanssen, a history professor at the University of Dallas, agreed, telling EWTN News that Hinojosaʼs election is “a big loss for a key principle of Catholic social doctrine — the rights of parents over their childrenʼs education.”

“The school voucher program frees parents from the stranglehold of the teacherʼs unions, which consistently oppose parental rights in education legislation. It will now be up to the Republicans in the state Senate to defend parental rights,” Hanssen said.

“The Church urges Catholics to participate in civic life,” Joseph noted, saying they should remain engaged between elections as much as during election seasons. “Our duty to seek the common good is not episodic but ongoing. It neither begins nor ends with voting, and continues whether our preferred party wins or not.”

Voters in Virginia and Nevada adopted amendments to their state constitutions to create a legal right to abortion, with more than 62% support in both states. Voters in Missouri easily defeated a pro-life referendum that would have repealed their state constitution’s legal right to abortion, with 55.5% voting against it.

Alternatively, voters in Idaho decisively rejected a referendum that would have changed state law to create a legal right to abortion, with 56% of voters casting their ballots for “no.”

The balance of power in Congress shifted significantly. Democrats have flipped at least seven Republican Senate seats (two Republican-held seats are still too close to call). Democrats won control of the House and are on pace to have more than a 70-seat majority.

Reactions to abortion referendums

Catholic bishops were heavily involved in the four abortion referendum battles, seeking to rally the faithful behind the Church’s teaching about the sanctity of life and cast their ballots in line with the pro-life causes.

After a resounding 25-point victory for abortion in Virginia, the bishops in both Catholic dioceses in the commonwealth called the results “profoundly tragic.”

“Unless a court intervenes, this decision will embed virtually limitless abortion into the constitution,” Diocese of Richmond Bishop Barry C. Knestout and Diocese of Arlington Bishop Michael F. Burbidge said in a joint statement.

“It will put women’s health and safety at severe risk and leave parents out of life-altering and irreversible decisions involving their minor daughters,” they said. “Most fundamentally, this extreme, radical, dangerous and deadly constitutional amendment is a complete rejection of the immeasurable value of human life, created in God’s image and likeness.”

Olivia Gans Turner, president of Virginia Society for Human Life, expressed concern about how far-reaching the referendum would go and said: “The winners of this vote will be abortion businesses who will be able to operate unregulated and without any serious accountability in the commonwealth. The losers of tonight’s vote are the women and unborn children who will now be without any legal protections going forward.”

The Nevada Catholic Conference — which represents the state’s two dioceses, the Diocese of Reno and the Archdiocese of Las Vegas — also issued a statement following the 26-point win for abortion rights in their state.

“A vote can change Nevadaʼs constitution, but it cannot change the dignity and value of every human life,” the statement read. “We are deeply disappointed by the passage of Question 6. However, this election does not end our responsibility to the unborn or to mothers who need our help.”

“The Nevada Catholic Conference remains committed to protecting human life and supporting women and families,” it added. “We will keep speaking up for the unborn and all human life from conception to natural death.”

The Missouri Catholic Conference also issued a statement — signed by the bishops of all four dioceses — which said it is “profoundly saddened” voters rejected the pro-life amendment.

“This result, however, does not mark the end of our work,” the statement read. “The Catholic Church in Missouri will continue to advocate for policies that uphold the dignity of every person, protect the most vulnerable among us, and provide compassionate support to those in need, as she has always done.”

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to accompany mothers and fathers facing hardship in their pregnancies and to offer hope and healing to those who have been wounded by the scourge of abortion,” the bishops added.

Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said the pro-life defeat “will continue to open the door to abortion throughout pregnancy” but that “tonight’s results are a setback, but it’s not the final word.”

“An election cannot diminish the humanity of an unborn child or end our responsibility to speak for those whose lives are at risk,” Tobias said.

The Diocese of Boise, the only Catholic diocese in Idaho, has not yet issued a statement on the pro-life victory in the state. The diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though Bishop Peter Christensen had been encouraging priests to emphasize the teaching on the sanctity of human life at every Mass leading up to the vote.

Emily Naugle, president of Right to Life of Idaho, said in a statement that “Idaho voters saw through a campaign designed to pit women against their unborn babies and recognized that our current laws protect both.”

“Pro-Life advocates came together and fought as though lives depended on it, because they do. They worked tirelessly to expose the truth about Proposition 1,” Naugle said. “We are relishing this victory and are proud to stand among the many voices who spoke up for the most vulnerable in our society this election.”

Reaction to election results

There have not been many reactions from bishops about the congressional results, although the Colorado Catholic Conference — which represents all of the state’s bishops — put out a statement congratulating all winners and urging them to support the common good.

“We call upon our elected leaders to implement policies that defend and uplift the most vulnerable members of our human family,” the statement read, according to the Denver Catholic.

“We also urge you to firmly protect the religious liberty of all individuals and faith-based organizations, safeguarding their right to serve the community according to their convictions,” it added. “May your governance be guided by a steadfast commitment to justice, peace and the flourishing of our entire state.”

Some pro-life organizations have expressed concern about the Democrats’ congressional wins due to the pro-abortion stances of the bulk of the party’s candidates.

Tobias said in a statement that many pro-life politicians were “replaced with rabidly anti-life candidates” but noted “we’ve faced difficult times before — and we’re still here.”

“We will continue to push for laws that protect babies and help their moms, while looking for new and innovative ways to love them both,” she said. “We will work to make sure that every pregnant woman knows she is not alone. And we will continue to promote the value of innocent human life so that, even if abortion is legal, no woman will want one.”

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser asserted in a statement that Republican turnout was low because the Republican Party has watered down its pro-life stances.

“Republican consultants got the campaign they wanted — and the defeat they earned,” she said. “You cannot spend years telling your base to sit down and shut up, then act surprised when they don’t stand up for you on Election Day. Republicans must stop running from the pro-life fight and start giving voters a reason to fight for them.”

A poll released by the Pew Research Center in October found that 43% of Republicans listed abortion as a “very important” factor in their vote. However, 82% listed the economy as “very important” and many other issues surpassed abortion in terms of importance for Republican voters, such as immigration, foreign policy, and violent crime.

The North Royalton Fire Department — located several miles outside of Cleveland — announced on Nov. 3 that one of its firefighters, Ryan Milligan, had died after fighting a fire in Broadview Heights the day before.

Milligan, 36, had served in the department since 2016. He and his wife, Laura, shared two children; Milligan himself had been pursuing the role of fire lieutenant.

Also injured in the blaze was firefighter Andrew Protsman, who survived and is recovering in the hospital. The two had been present at the fire after responding to a neighboring department’s request for mutual aid, where fire departments request assistance from nearby firefighters. 

‘He was a hero’

Milligan’s death and Protsman’s hospitalization have resulted in an outpouring of support from the local community, according to Father Doug Brown, who serves as a chaplain for the Cleveland Division of Fire.

Brown, who also serves as pastor at Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Cleveland, told EWTN News that he had worked as a chaplain in the Cleveland Police Department for years before taking up the role in the city’s fire department.

He said his ministry includes regular visits to local firehouses, spiritual counseling, and administering the sacraments, including weddings and baptisms for firefighting families.

Brown said the tragedy occurred when both Milligan and Protsman fell through the floor at the house in which they were battling the blaze. He said the community has been gripped by “great sorrow and great sadness” after the incident.

The priest said he has heard one particular Scripture verse repeated in the days after the tragedy: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

“Over and over we are seeing that Scripture verse repeated,” he said. “People know that this was a selfless, sacrificial act, done in the service of this community.”

Though the firefighters were from the North Royalton department and Brown is a chaplain with the Cleveland Fire Department, the priest said that on the night of the fire he went to the local hospital, located about a mile and a half from his parish, to pray with the families there.

“I kept saying, ‘He’s a hero,’” Brown said. “Because that’s what he is.”

Milligan himself was Lutheran, Brown said. The priest said he was as-yet unaware of any funeral arrangements. But he said Milligan exemplified the self-giving spirit of Christ, as do all firefighters.

“I feel like these are men and women who are willing to sacrifice their lives in the same way that Christ gave his life for us,” he said.

Brown told local news that he has urged the community to both give the grieving families the space they need while continuing to offer consolation past the point when community support often fades away.

“[D]onʼt disappear on them," he urged. "Keep reaching out to them."

The priest told EWTN News, meanwhile, that as a chaplain he feels called to minister to people doing some of the most difficult work in civil society.

“The demands of their jobs can be intense and demanding,” he said. “Finding time for spiritual consolation is difficult for many of them. I like to be able to provide that in any way possible. That’s what drives me.”

The Democratic Party flipped roughly three dozen seats across the House and Senate on election night, giving them strong majorities in both chambers, including a 10-seat advantage in the Senate.

The results were hailed by Democrat supporters as a sharp backlash to Trump’s second and last term in the White House, during which the president has presided over an unpopular war with Iran along with record-high gas prices and continuing high costs of groceries and other consumer goods.

Abortion expanded, protected in multiple states

Abortion advocates, meanwhile, recorded significant wins at the state level on Election Day, with voters in multiple states passing measures expanding abortion or else voting down efforts to restrict it.

In Virginia, voters passed an amendment to the state constitution guaranteeing abortion rights to “every individual.” Critics have argued that the measure will extend unfettered abortion rights even to children, undermining parental rights and putting young girls at risk. Though passed, the measure is still the subject of legal actions challenging its validity.

In Nevada, meanwhile, voters approved a constitutional amendment that will allow unborn babies in the state to be aborted up to the point of “viability” with no restrictions. The proposal passed overwhelmingly with more than 60% support.

Elsewhere, in Missouri, voters rejected a proposal to reinstitute a state ban on abortion there. About 55% of the state’s voters rejected the proposal, which leaves in place the rule allowing abortion through “fetal viability.”

Amid major victories for abortion supporters on Election Day, however, Idaho voters rejected an effort there to expand abortion rights.

The measure, which was voted down roughly 56% to 44%, would have established “a right to reproductive freedom and privacy” in the state and would have ordered that the government could not interfere with most abortion-related decisions.

Catholic bishops and advocates in the contested states had urged voters to reject the abortion proposals. Virginia’s two bishops had mounted a “Catholics Vote No” campaign to rally Catholic voters against the amendment.

Las Vegas Archbishop George Leo Thomas, meanwhile, had described the Nevada proposal as a “very serious and damaging expansion” of abortion law there. As in Virginia, the newly passed Nevada measure extends abortion rights to “individuals”; pro-life advocates have warned that such language potentially opens the door for doctors to perform unregulated abortions on underage girls.

Also in Virginia, voters repealed the state’s long-standing ban on same-sex “marriage,” a largely symbolic gesture given the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized those arrangements throughout the U.S.

With more than 87% of the vote counted in Virginia as of 11 p.m. ET, 61.5% of people voted for the referendum and 38.5% voted against it.

The people of Missouri are voting on a pro-life referendum to repeal a state constitutional right to abortion. The outcome is too early to call with more than 85% of the vote counted, but the referendum is currently losing, with 55.5% of people voting against it and 44.5% in favor.

Votes have yet to be counted in Nevada or Idaho, where polls closed later.

Catholic bishops in all four states were heavily involved throughout the races, emphasizing the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of life and asking the faithful to cast pro-life votes on the state referendums.

The state referendums

The referendum in Virginia will establish a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” in the state constitution, which includes “abortion care.” The amendment extends this right to “every individual,” rather than restricting it to just adults.

Although the amendment allows abortion restrictions in the third trimester, it does not allow any restrictions when necessary to protect “the life or physical or mental health” of the mother at any point in the pregnancy. It does not define what constitutes a threat to one’s “mental health” but rather leaves this up to the discretion of the treating physician, who is often the abortionist.

The referendum in Missouri would repeal the state constitutional right to abortion and it would allow state lawmakers to restrict abortion. If it fails, the constitution will continue to maintain a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom," which includes “abortion care.”

Missouri’s constitution allows lawmakers to restrict abortions after fetal viability, which is when the unborn child can survive outside the womb. However, lawmakers cannot restrict abortion at any point in the pregnancy when necessary to “protect the life or physical or mental health” of the mother. Fetal viability and whether the mother’s health is at risk is determined by the treating physician, who is often the abortionist.

The referendum in Nevada, if it passes, would establish “a fundamental right to abortion” in the state constitution. It would allow lawmakers to impose restrictions after the point of fetal viability, which are determined by the “treating health care practitioner,” which is often the abortionist.

The right would extend through the entire pregnancy when needed to “protect the life or health” of the mother, but “health” is not defined. The right would extend to all individuals, not just adults.

Idaho’s referendum would not amend the state constitution, but it would change state law to establish a right to “reproductive freedom,” which includes “abortion.” It would supersede the current state law, which prohibits abortion except to prevent the death of the mother and, in the first trimester, in reported cases of rape or incest.

The referendum would allow lawmakers to restrict abortion at the point of fetal viability, but this would be determined by the treating physician, who is often the abortionist. It would not allow lawmakers to restrict abortion at any point in the pregnancy when there is a medical emergency. The right would be extended to all individuals, not just adults.

The case, St. Mary School v. Roy, centers on a preschool-through-grade-8 Catholic school in Littleton that wants to participate in the state’s universal preschool program.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a member of the court’s conservative majority, described the case as a clash between the free exercise of religion and the right to same-sex marriage the court found in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. But he suggested the clash is unnecessary because parents in Colorado have so many options for prekindergarten, since there are more than 2,000 providers in the state, while the Archdiocese of Denver has only 34 schools that provide the service.

“Why has this been provoked when there’s an ability for everyone to go to the school, a good school, that’s a fit for them, and to respect religious rights?” he asked.

Helen Norton, deputy solicitor general for the state of Colorado, said parents often choose prekindergarten programs based on their location and their hours rather than their curriculum.

“Colorado has an interest in ensuring that its public funds go to schools that ensure equal opportunity — not some opportunity, that ensure equal opportunity to public-funded options, regardless of protected-class status,” Norton said, replying to Kavanaugh’s question. “Families are harmed when they’re turned away from the publicly funded school that makes their lives work because of their protected-class status.”

‘Creating a Catholic community’

In 2020, Colorado voters approved a state-funded universal prekindergarten program, using increases in tobacco-related taxes to pay for it. The state government is planning to spend about $360 million for the program during the 2026-2027 school year. The state pays preschool providers about $6,100 per year for 15 hours a week of instruction for 4-year-olds during the 2026-2027 school year, according to state standards.

Catholic schools want to participate in the program, but the Archdiocese of Denver objects to a state mandate concerning admissions.

A Colorado state statute requires that preschools participating in the funding program provide children “an equal opportunity to enroll and receive preschool services” regardless of eight protected classes — including “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” — “as such characteristics and circumstances apply to the child or the child’s family.”

A lawyer for the Catholic schools told justices Tuesday that Church and school officials want to make admissions decisions on a case-by-case basis in alignment with Catholic teachings instead of simply allowing all comers because of a state mandate.

“I think it’s their thoughtful attempt to say, ‘We’re creating a Catholic community,’” said Nicholas Reaves, senior counsel for the Becket law group, which is representing the Catholic schools.

Reaves got hostile questions from the court’s three liberals (Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson) and either friendly or neutral questions from the court’s five conservatives (Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett), which suggests how the decision might ultimately go. (The chief justice, John Roberts, often seen as a swing vote, mostly moderated the discussion.)

Sarah Harris, principal deputy solicitor general in the Trump administration, also argued on the Catholic schools’ side during oral presentations Tuesday.

Many options

The history of Catholic schools in the 19th century came up during oral arguments, including their origin in concerns among Catholic clerics and parents that government-run public schools were providing a Protestant point of view to the exclusion of Catholicism. Kavanaugh, a Catholic, at one point asked the lawyer for the state of Colorado about a moment in the trial record when the administrator of the state’s universal prekindergarten program was asked about Catholic history.

“The director of the program, by all accounts a dutiful public servant, … was asked at the trial, ‘Are you aware that Catholics have historically been discriminated against?’ And she answered, ‘No,’” Kavanaugh said. “I was surprised by that answer and curious if that’s Colorado’s position.”

“Not at all, Your Honor,” Norton replied. “And it’s Colorado’s position that the equal-opportunity requirements help religious families. They ensure that Catholic families are not turned away from the UPK [universal prekindergarten] school that best meets their needs because of their faith or because of any other protected characteristic. And a history of discrimination against Catholics is among the reasons that requirement is so important.”

Some legal observers have suggested that a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court may use the Colorado case as a vehicle to overturn the Smith decision in 1990, which, although written by the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, is disliked by many religious-liberty advocates who argue it doesn’t respect free-exercise rights enough.

Yet the lawyer representing the Catholic schools on Tuesday offered narrower grounds for the justices to overturn Colorado’s admissions requirements, noting that for every Catholic preschool program in the Archdiocese of Denver, there are two universal prekindergarten programs already in the state’s program within three miles of it.

Said Reaves: “This is just not really a problem in real life.”

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

The IRS just concluded the public comment period for a rule that would remove the tax-exempt status of private K-12 schools, colleges, and universities that consider a person’s race or ethnic background in admissions, financial aid, scholarships, or other opportunities.

Although the preamble of the proposed regulation states it would not prevent private religious schools from maintaining their religious missions and can have selection criteria based on the person’s religious affiliation, the USCCB warned that this language is not included in the rule itself.

In a public comment submitted Nov. 2 by the USCCB, the bishops also warned the proposed language could prohibit “religiously motivated programs addressing ethnoreligious identity and community needs” as well. This concern is because the preamble text only permits selection criteria if it “is based solely on religion and not on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.”

The bishops requested the IRS add religious liberty language to the regulation itself and remove the word “solely” from that text before approving a final rule. The bishops also encouraged the IRS to address federal legal protections for religious schools — including the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act — in both the preamble and the rule itself.

Additionally, the bishops requested that the IRS direct its personnel not to “second-guess” a religious school’s doctrine and to include explicit language that sincerely held religious belief does not violate the rule. They are also asking that private schools get a period to correct any violation before enforcement action is taken.

The USCCB was joined in its public comment by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities and The Catholic University of America.

University of Providence to shut down

The University of Providence — a Catholic higher education institution in Great Falls, Montana — announced it will shut down operations at the end of the 2026-2027 academic year, citing financial struggles that cannot be overcome.

According to a news release, the university suffered enrollment decline and financial pressures, which led officials to restructure academic programs, reduce operating expenses, and pursue new enrollment and revenue strategies. Although this softened the financial struggles, it did not create a long-term sustainable operating model, it stated.

“We recognize the grief and uncertainty this decision will bring to students, families, employees, alumni and the Great Falls community,” Caroline Goulet, the university president, said in a statement.

“Our responsibility now is to care for the people who make up this University community, maintain the quality of their educational experience, and provide clear guidance and support as they prepare for what comes next,” she said.

The university promised to help students transfer to other institutions to complete their degrees.

Notre Dame announces Global Saints Initiative

The University of Notre Dame announced the start of the Global Saints Initiative in 2027, which will focus on adding iconography of more saints at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which sits at the center of the campus.

The iconography will include saints from five continents and nine countries to reflect the broad cultural dimensions of the Catholic Church, according to a news release from the university.

“Just as university founder Father Edward Sorin carefully selected saints for the Basilica that spoke to the Notre Dame students of his day, these new icons reflect the diverse vocations, cultures, and backgrounds of today’s campus community and the wider Church,” Father Pete McCormick, CSC, assistant vice president for campus ministry, said in a statement.

“I am incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to share these stories of holiness with all who visit the Basilica and especially with our students who I’m hopeful will be able to identify with and learn from these witnesses of faith,” he said.

The announcement states that the iconography will be installed in January 2027, before the spring semester begins.

Study shows concerns with SATs

A study conducted by Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Education Policy — sponsored by Thomas Aquinas College, a Catholic institution — found concerns with changes to SAT tests, which many students take before applying to college.

When comparing the SAT tests from 1980 and 1987 to tests today, the study found changes that diminish the emphasis on the students’ ability to read and analyze difficult text, according to a news release from Thomas Aquinas College.

“The makers of the SAT seem to believe that the ability to tackle long and complex literary works isn’t an important skill for college students anymore,” Thomas Aquinas College Vice President John J. Goyette said in a statement.

“Sadly, given the state of modern higher education, they’re probably right,” he said.

The study notes that passages are shorter, sometimes one-third of the former length, and there was a drop in vocabulary questions that require independent word knowledge, from 60 to 10.

It notes that newer tests nearly eliminated argumentative and persuasive readings and replaced reading passages that assumed prior knowledge and understanding with texts that reveal the meaning through context clues.

The first initiative to come from the Department of War’s recently established Office of Religious Affairs, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called the program that office’s “first win.”

Under the funded option of the new program, the service covers tuition for a qualifying graduate theological degree at an accredited U.S. institution while service members remain on active duty.

After graduation, they will transition temporarily to inactive status through the Career Intermission Program to gain a minimum of two (and not more than three) years of full-time religious leadership experience as a religious ministry professional with their endorsing organization, after which they may then be commissioned as active-duty Navy Chaplain Corps officers.

Previously, active-duty Sailors or Marines who felt called to the chaplaincy usually had to leave military service, losing pay and benefits, to complete seminary and professional ministry experience as civilians, at their own expense, and then reapply. No dedicated in-service pipeline existed for this purpose.

Cao urged leaders to identify Navy and Marine Corps members “from every faith tradition,” both officers and enlisted, “who possess the character, calling, and commitment” required for the program, which was authorized under the National Defense Authorization Act.

“Spiritual readiness is combat readiness,” he wrote in the announcement.

Hegseth said the same day that previously, when service members had to leave the military to pursue theological studies, it lost many “good warriors who wanted to answer Godʼs call. But not anymore.”

He said he established the Office of Religious Affairs “to champion the spiritual readiness of our force,” calling the new program its “first win.”

“Chaplains are the backbone of this military,” he said. “And some of our warfighters watching this are feeling a divine calling to the chaplaincy. To you, I encourage you with the words of Isaiah … ‘Here I am, send me.’”

“President Trumpʼs Department of War will not make you choose between the uniform and your calling,” Hegseth continued, noting bipartisan congressional support for the program.

“Republicans and Democrats in Congress saw the importance of this and made it law. To those who feel called to be a chaplain, the Department of War has your back. Be strong and very courageous,” he said.

Archbishop welcomes initiative, but says it is of ‘little value’ to Catholics without changes

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, (AMS) told EWTN News that while the archdiocese welcomes the "effort to encourage chaplain service, the initiative is of little value to prospective Catholic chaplains” without some changes.

Broglio pointed out that candidates for the priesthood spend at least seven years in academic, pastoral, and spiritual formation, noting that the program “only envisions three.”

After years of seminary formation, co-sponsored by the AMS and their home dioceses, Catholics called to serve as chaplains must then engage in three years of civilian pastoral service before serving in the military.

Broglio said missing from the program is an allowance for the additional three years of civilian pastoral service, a period he said is intended to provide hands-on experience and which is a general condition for a chaplain candidate to receive AMS endorsement for active-duty service.

He encouraged the military to “consider allowing for both the time in formation and the pastoral experience” in order to support prospective Catholic chaplains.

Retreat for young men considering military chaplaincy

The announcement of the new chaplaincy program coincided with a discernment retreat hosted by AMS for young men considering the vocation to military chaplaincy.

According to the archdiocese, Broglio hosted 33 prospective Catholic chaplains at the Fall Discernment Retreat held Oct. 29–Nov. 1, the beginning of National Vocation Awareness Week, at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore.

Participants from dioceses across the country prayed together, took part in adoration and Holy Hours, and heard talks from Broglio, archdiocesan vocations director Father Paul-Anthony Halladay, and military chaplains on topics including discernment, the role of priests as spiritual fathers, and the lives and examples of chaplains who served in each of the military’s branches.

New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, encouraged Catholics to pray for and support priestly and religious vocations, highlighting the witness of those who have responded to God’s call.

“As we draw near the busiest time of the year, a season marked by thanksgiving and joy, National Vocation Awareness Week reminds us of the beautiful witness of those who have responded to God’s call to serve in ordained ministry as priests and deacons, and men and women who serve in consecrated life,” Hicks said in a statement. “This National Vocation Awareness Week, we thank God for all vocations and pray for a deepened spirit of joy in marriages, in the priesthood and diaconate, and in all forms of consecrated life. Your witness to a joy-filled vocation inspires young people to follow God’s call with courage.”

Catholic organizations, dioceses, schools, and parishes are observing the week Nov. 1–7 by promoting the welfare and vocational call to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life through events, prayer, and education. Across the country, consecrated religious are recalling their vocational promises and how they personally discerned their call to religious life.

“My initial reaction was, ‘Oh no, not me. I have plans in life.’ Then, it was very persistent to me. There, I realized that saying ‘yes’ to him — it can make me very happy in life — only when I am able to discover what he wants for me,” said Sister Ruby Sampang, a member of the Religious of Mary Immaculate (RMI) and residential director at Centro Maria Catholic Housing in Washington, D.C.

Originally from the Philippines, Sister Ruby has spent decades serving young women around the world. She said helping them respond to God’s call has been her “greatest joy.”

“My joy, my greatest joy, as I said, is saying yes in the end,” Sister Ruby said. “He gave me that grace to say yes, and that gave me a lot of joy; it gave me a lot of freedom.”

“God makes his way through when he wants it. So, we just need to trust it and to trust him. And I think my greatest joy too is to be with young women,” she said.

During the 63rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Leo XIV said: “Every vocation is an immeasurable gift for the Church and for those who received it with joy.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops established National Vocation Awareness Week in 1976 and originally observed it on the 28th Sunday of the year. After the observance occasionally coincided with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the bishops moved it in 2014 to the first full week of November.

Encouraging Catholics to pray for and support vocations, Hicks said: “This National Vocation Awareness Week, we thank God for all vocations and pray for a deepened spirit of joy in marriages, in the priesthood and diaconate, and in all forms of consecrated life. Your witness to a joy-filled vocation inspires young people to follow God’s call with courage.”

Here are seven fascinating facts about this inspiring saint:

1. His father refused to acknowledge him.

Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru, in 1579. He was the son of a Spanish nobleman and former Panamanian Black slave. His father, Don Juan de Porres, refused to publicly acknowledge the boy as his own because Martin had darker skin, like his mother. Being biracial would prove challenging for Martin throughout his life.

2. He started practicing medicine before he was 13.

Martin served as an apprentice to a doctor, and before the age of 13 he began to learn the practice of medicine. He would eventually become a barber, which at the time performed minor medical and surgical procedures like pulling teeth or emptying abscesses.

3. He faced prejudice and discrimination as a Dominican.

Martin entered the Dominican order in 1603. Becoming a Dominican brother proved to be challenging for Martin because a Peruvian law at the time prevented people of mixed race from joining religious orders. Therefore, he lived with the community and did manual work, earning himself the nickname “the saint of the broom” for his diligence in cleaning the Dominicans’ quarters.

Eventually he was allowed to enter the order, despite the law, and worked in the infirmary tending to the sick and among the impoverished of Peru. “I cure them, but God heals them,” Martin would say when curing the sick.

He also had the task of begging for alms that the community would use to clothe and feed the poor. He also established an orphanage and planted an orchard from which those in need could freely take a day’s supply of fruit.

4. He levitated and bilocated.

Martin was deeply prayerful, so much so that many of the brothers witnessed him levitating in intense prayer and embracing the cross.

Martin reportedly also had the gift of bilocation, and some of his contemporaries said they encountered him in places as far off as Japan even as he remained in Lima. Some claimed he had appeared to them supernaturally behind locked doors or under otherwise impossible circumstances.

5. He refused to eat meat.

Martin loved animals and had a deep compassion for all living creatures. He refused to eat meat and ran a veterinary hospital for sick animals that seemed to seek out his help. Portrayals of the saint often include cats, dogs, and even the rats to whom he showed compassion.

6. He is the patron saint of multiple manual labor occupations.

Martin was known for the various assignments he carried out and which earned him the title of patron saint of barbers, the sick, and street cleaners. On the 50th anniversary of St. Martin de Porres’ canonization, Father Juan Anguerri, director of the St. Martin de Porres Home for the Poor, said: “These are often thankless tasks, but yet through his humble service, St. Martin sent a message to revitalize these jobs.”

7. He was canonized more than 300 years after his death.

Martin de Porres died on Nov. 3, 1639, at the age of 60. He was canonized by Pope John XXIII on May 16, 1962. At his canonization Mass, John XXIII called him “Martin of Charity.”

This story was first published on Nov. 3, 2021, and was updated on Nov 3, 2026.

Susan Middleton was delighted. Maria was already an articulate, precocious child, and Susan eagerly anticipated whatever heartfelt message her daughter had prepared.

The card was decorated with flowers. On the front, Maria had written, “Happy Mother’s Day.” On the inside, it read, “To the second-best mother in the world.”

Susan laughed when she recounted the story in an interview with the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, but the card also reflected something she had tried to instill in Maria from an early age: that while she had an earthly mother who “makes mistakes,” she also had a perfect mother in heaven.

Six years after Maria’s death from a brain tumor at the age of 18, hundreds gathered Oct. 5 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, as Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia celebrated Mass marking the anniversary of her passing.

It was to this shrine that Susan had brought Maria every week to Eucharistic adoration, starting at age 3. Here, Maria learned the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the rosary and developed a deep love for the Blessed Mother, to whom she was consecrated at her baptism.

At the anniversary Mass, Pérez recalled first encountering Maria during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she wrote to him after public Masses had been suspended. She wanted to receive the Eucharist, which she described as the grace she needed amid her illness.

Pérez responded that same day, offering to bring her Communion himself.

“She definitely lived a life that exemplified” Christ’s command to love “God with all your heart,” Pérez said. “That’s why we’re here today.”

Since her death on Oct. 8, 2020, Brian and Susan Middleton have received dozens of messages each week from people who say their daughter has affected their lives, including people who have returned to the Church, rediscovered the sacraments, or deepened their faith through her example.

In June, Pérez was presented with a petition seeking the introduction of the Bucks County teenager’s cause for canonization, beginning the Church’s preliminary process of consultation.

Father Griffen Schlaepfer, a 28-year-old Philadelphia priest who first learned about Maria after her death, encountered her story through a holy card at his parish bearing one of her sayings: “You don’t have to be weird to be holy.”

The line has stayed with him as he has come to know her witness. “You don’t have to be joyless to be holy,” Schlaepfer said. “You can have a full, attractive life and also live in accordance with God’s will completely.”

Faith from an early age

Maria was born Sept. 10, 2002, when Susan was 44, after she and Brian had married following the annulment of their previous marriages and blended their families together. Her parents describe her as an unexpected gift from God. She was also, in many ways, an ordinary teenager.

She loved music, Irish dance, and sports. She excelled academically, was elected class president, and belonged to the National Honor Society, all while serving in various roles at her parish.

Maggie McArdle, a childhood friend, met Maria in first grade. She remembers Maria as funny, witty, and kind — a girl who made silly music videos with her friends and loved making duct-tape wallets.

“I can remember belly laughs, just laughing until our bellies hurt,” McArdle said. “I like to talk to her today and read through our old texts. Those are so special to me.”

Kim O’Grady, Maria’s sister, remembers that relatability as well. Fifteen years older than Maria, O’Grady watched her grow into a teenager who loved Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers, and Shawn Mendes and, like other teenagers her age, had Snapchat and Instagram.

Although she had many of the same interests as her teenage peers, there were signs that Maria had her priorities in order when it came to faith and self-growth.

“She knew what her North Star was,” O’Grady said, explaining that Maria seemed to know who she was and what she believed. “If you just have that relationship with God and just focus and hone in on that, you can be who you are and live out to your full potential.”

Maria, conscious of pressures many young people face today, demonstrated in her writings a desire for growth. After watching old videos of herself as a child, for instance, she reflected on how much she had changed and how social media had affected the way she thought about herself.

“I think seeing the videos of me made me realize there’s no reason for me not to be like the way I was when I was little,” she wrote in her journal. “Even if that means to cut out social media a little or do more stuff for fun and just enjoy the little things, that’s what I’ll train myself to do.”

Stephanie Weaver, who taught Maria in Catholic social teaching and moral theology at Villa Joseph Marie High School, saw that combination of faith and action firsthand. As a freshman, Maria started a coat drive benefiting Mother of Mercy House in Kensington and co-chaired the school’s mini-thon — now called Hope-A-Thon in Maria’s honor — a dance marathon that raises money to support children battling cancer.

“There was something so different about Maria because she didn’t just talk the talk,” Weaver said. Instead, she “walked the walk.”

A good student who was involved in various charitable activities, Brian said Maria never confused her accomplishments with her identity.

“Her holiness wasn’t exposed when she was diagnosed” with brain cancer, Brian said. “Her holiness came and grew throughout her lifetime in her pursuit of virtues and offering up her talents to God.”

For Maria, that kind of holiness would soon be tested. In January 2019, when she was 16, she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor on her brainstem. Doctors told her family she might have nine to 12 months to live.

Missionaries of the Sacred Heart Father Simione Volavola, who knew Maria from childhood through the family’s parish, was in the room when she received the diagnosis.

“She was the most peaceful person in the room,” Volavola said. “She just took it very calmly and accepted it very quickly.”

That peace remained as Maria’s illness progressed, even as her physical suffering increased. “She never lost that peace,” Volavola said. “The body was failing. She was really suffering, but very graceful in the way she carried her cross.”

Maria hoped for a miraculous healing throughout her illness. At the same time, however, she sought to surrender herself to God’s will.

Her journals, which she began keeping as a child, reveal a spiritual life that her parents say they only fully understood after her death. Her first recorded words in a journal at age 11 were simple: “God is merciful.”

Her final written words, as the effects of the tumor made writing increasingly difficult, were two words that would become the name of the foundation established in her memory: “Think hope.”

‘She did not despair’

As Maria’s physical abilities disappeared, her concern for other people did not.

Nine months after her diagnosis, she traveled with her parents to Uganda, where students at Pope John Paul II Academy had been praying for her. One girl, Patience, wrote Maria a letter asking her to pray for her brother, who had sickle cell anemia.

When Maria later received an opportunity through Make-A-Wish, she chose to use it to help Patience’s family and the school.

Back home, during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, friends organized virtual rosaries for Maria’s healing, including one Zoom meeting that drew more than 2,000 people. In another show of care for the teenager, more than 500 cars participated in a parade outside the Middleton home.

Even as Maria’s condition worsened, Susan said, she never lost hope.

“She watched when her legs didn’t work and her arms didn’t work,” Susan said. “And she could no longer hear. And she could no longer swallow. And she could no longer speak. She knew all this was happening and she did not despair.”

Maria died Oct. 8, 2020, at the age of 18. Her parents now devote much of their lives to sharing her story. Their book, “Think Hope: Maria Middleton’s Life of Unyielding Trust in God,” was published by Ascension in 2025.

At the anniversary Mass, Pérez emphasized that the Church’s discernment about Maria’s possible sainthood is ultimately secondary to the witness she already offers.

“Faith is like a ripple,” he said, quoting Maria. “When you have faith and show it, it will impact other people’s lives.”

“Maria says to young people, you too can have great faith,” he told the Register. “You too can be holy. You too could have hope.”

“You too can live a life of hope and a love of life,” Pérez continued, “of faith and a love for the Lord and for his Church.”

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

Bishops’ conferences at the state level are organizations jointly run by every diocesan bishop in that state, which are active in every state with more than one diocese. A conference will often comment on bills and referendums that implicate Catholic teaching and put out statements on matters specific to their state.

In some states with contentious referendums on the ballot, bishops’ conferences have taken a clear position on initiatives, urging Catholics to either support or oppose the measures. Some of these measures are related to abortion, gender and sexuality, human trafficking, and gambling.

American bishops do not campaign for specific candidates in elections. Yet, advocating for and against referendums is classified in the tax code as “lobbying” instead of campaigning, which is permitted for dioceses and jointly run Catholic conferences. However, there are legal restrictions on the amount of lobbying in which they can engage.

Taking on abortion

Three conferences have taken strong stances on ballot initiatives related to abortion: Virginia, Nevada, and Missouri. Diocese of Boise Bishop Peter Christensen also took a strong stance on an abortion referendum in Idaho, though the state has only one diocese and no conference.

In Virginia and Nevada, the bishops’ conferences are asking the faithful to vote no on proposed constitutional amendments to establish a legal right to abortion in their states. The conferences have produced printed material offered at parishes that discuss Church teaching on the sanctity of human life, and the bishops have released joint statements. Both states have two dioceses.

Amy McInerny, director of Respect Life at the Diocese of Arlington’s Office of Marriage, Family, and Respect Life, told EWTN News the dioceses coordinated on the referendum for two years, “coming up with a battle plan” to oppose the measure.

Las Vegas Archbishop George Leo Thomas told EWTN News that in Nevada, the bishops meet during years with legislative sessions. The conference contracts much of the work to attorneys who are aligned with the Church’s legislative priorities and follow the sessions.

Bishops in Missouri are urging voters to back a pro-life initiative to repeal a state constitutional right to abortion. This also includes producing printed material and offering joint statements by the bishops.

Jamie Morris, executive director of the Missouri Catholic Conference, told EWTN News “it has been a major focus of all four dioceses and of all four bishops.” He said the conference works directly with the bishops, providing them with information about legislative issues so they can take informed stances on the subjects.

Gender and sexuality

Several conferences have also taken positions on issues that implicate Catholic teachings on gender and sexuality, which includes same-sex marriage, transgender athletes participating in women’s sports, and parental rights.

In addition to the abortion referendum in Virginia, the bishops are fighting against a referendum to enshrine same-sex marriage into the state constitution. Much of the material urging Catholics to oppose the abortion referendum also urges them to oppose this referendum.

The Colorado Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s three dioceses, has taken a stance on two referendums on this subject, encouraging the faithful to support two initiatives.

One referendum would ensure interscholastic and intramural athletics are separated on the basis of biological sex rather than purported gender identity. The other would ban surgeries on children meant to alter their sex characteristics as a treatment in response to their perceived gender.

Nebraskans will vote on a referendum to separate sports on the basis of biological sex rather than purported gender identity. The Nebraska Catholic Conference did not officially take a stance on this but did issue a statement that said the conference supported legislation that was nearly identical and urged the faithful to “please keep in mind Catholic social teaching on human sexuality” when voting on the measure.

The Washington State Catholic Conference has spoken positively of a proposed referendum to also separate athletics on the basis of biological sex as opposed to purported gender identity. In a statement to EWTN News, the conference called the initiative “consistent with Catholic teaching on the complementarity and divine design of women and men.”

The conference spoke positively about a separate referendum to restore parental rights to access information related to their child’s mental health, telling EWTN News it “ensures that parents are not kept in the dark about an issue that impacts their childʼs health.” This may include information about a child’s sexuality and gender identity.

Other issues on the ballot

The other issues bishops have taken positions on include human trafficking, gambling, and procedures for changing the state constitution.

The Colorado Catholic Conference has asked Catholics to support a referendum that would mandate life imprisonment for any person convicted of human trafficking of a minor.

The Nebraska Catholic Conference has encouraged Catholics to vote against two referendums that would legalize and regulate sports gambling in the state, warning it would “expand predatory online sports gambling in our state,” which “can lead to family problems, debt, bankruptcy, homelessness, and mental health issues.”

The South Dakota Catholic Conference has backed a referendum that would increase the threshold needed for adopting a constitutional amendment via referendum, from a majority vote to a 60% threshold. This is meant to prevent future referendums to establish legal rights to abortion from succeeding.

The North Dakota Catholic Conference backed a similar referendum to increase the threshold to adopt a constitutional amendment via referendum from a majority vote to 60%, citing the same concerns.

By the conclusion of Mass, blue skies and large white clouds had replaced the rain. Inside the cathedral, a spirit of joy and thanksgiving marked the celebration, held on the solemnity of All Saints, one day after the friars were declared blessed at the Savannah Convention Center.

Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer of Atlanta presided, and Savannah Bishop Stephen D. Parkes delivered the homily. Cardinal Frank Leo of Toronto, who had presided over Saturday’s beatification as Pope Leo XIV’s representative, was among the concelebrants. Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, also attended.

Parkes urged those celebrating to consider how they would carry the gift of the martyrs’ witness beyond the weekend’s events.

“We have received a gift,” he said.

The bishop suggested introducing couples preparing for sacramental marriage to the newly beatified friars. He spoke of engaged couples learning their story, receiving an image of them and praying for their intercession for faithfulness in marriage. He also proposed prayers at weddings for the newly married couple.

“There are many other ways we can continue to honor these holy men,” he said.

The newly beatified friars are Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez de Cuacos, Miguel de Añón, Antonio de Badajoz, and Francisco de Veráscola. Four were priests; de Badajoz was a lay brother. All came from Spain and served in missions among the Indigenous Guale people in what is now coastal Georgia.

According to the Diocese of Savannah’s account, the violence began in 1597 after de Corpa opposed a baptized Guale leader’s decision to take a second wife. The account identifies Juanillo, who was in line for leadership, as the man who killed Pedro. Juanillo then led a war party against other missions. Five friars died during the uprising.

Pope Francis authorized recognition of their martyrdom on Jan. 27, 2025. The decree identified their deaths as having occurred in hatred of the faith, clearing the way for their beatification. The diocesan investigation had opened in 1984 and concluded in 2007.

Beatification confers the title “blessed” on a person and permits public veneration within the places or religious communities authorized by the Church. It is distinct from canonization, which extends that recognition to the universal Church.

The Georgia Martyrs’ liturgical memorial is Sept. 22.

The celebration also received attention in Rome. After the Nov. 1 Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo recalled the friars’ missionary service and their deaths.

“Let us invoke the intercession of these martyrs for all missionaries of the Gospel,” he said.

In Savannah, Parkes described the response to the beatification in terms of stewardship.

“We should always accept it with gratitude, with thanksgiving in our hearts,” he said.

“When we receive a gift, we should tend it responsibly,” he continued, “and also return it with increase.”

Catholics gathered at the CatholicPsych Institute’s Summit of Integration from Oct. 20–23 in Dallas. Its founder, Greg Bottaro, whose work centers on the integration of St. John Paul II’s teachings on the meaning and purpose of the body with the practice of psychology, told attendees that “St. John Paul II has written more for psychologists than any other psychologist in the last 150 years.”

“John Paul II didn’t use the language of psychology in his theology of the body, but everything he talked about was relatable to the field,” Bottaro told EWTN News. “Faith, reason, and science all come together in his work.”

The theology of the body teaches that the human person is a unity of body and soul, created male and female in the image of God and called to communion through the sincere gift of self. The body has a “nuptial” or spousal meaning: It expresses the person and is ordered toward loving self-gift, which is fully realized either in the permanent, exclusive, and life-giving union of marriage or in the celibate gift of self for the kingdom.

Speakers at the conference, which was timed to coincide with St. John Paul II’s feast day on Oct. 22, tied the saint’s writings to their own work and personal lives.

A love that is ‘stronger than death’

Christopher West, a Catholic author and educator who specializes in the theology of the body, gave an address called “My Interior Journey with St. John Paul II.”

West said the saint’s writings helped him make sense of a yearning that began when he was a child, a yearning that he explained was for a love that would never end.

He described this yearning as beginning with an innocent crush on a girl in his third grade class, but as he grew up, it led him to a disordered view of sexuality and the body: “I wanted a beauty; I wanted a joy; I wanted happiness that lasts forever, that does not die.”

“The Church calls this yearning eros,” the Greek word for romantic love, he said. “Eros cries out for a love that is ‘stronger than death,’” he continued, quoting the Song of Songs in the Old Testament.

“Christianity is an invitation to a wedding feast that corresponds to that cry of the heart,” he said.

St. John Paul II taught that “Christianity is not redemption from the body and sexuality. It is the redemption of the body and sexuality. Christ came into the world, not to condemn those whose eros is distorted, but to untwist it.”

“The most disastrous mistake of Christians is to view sexuality as trash and throw it away rather than redeem it,” he continued. “We have three choices with eros: Repress it, aim it at finite pleasure, or, by the grace of God, learn how to aim our desire for the infinite toward the infinite.”

He said he sees St. John Paul II not primarily as a theologian but as a spiritual father whose writings helped him confront his own fear of death.

“This boundless demand of eros expresses the basic problem of human existence: The heart demands infinity but cannot grant it. It claims eternity but is bound by death,” West continued. “Our deepest fear is staring into our own death.”

“John Paul II truly fathered me,” West said. “This is the gift of this man in my life: He has helped me face my deepest fear and gave me courage.”

West said he needed that courage to confront difficulties that fear caused in his 31-year marriage to his wife, Wendy, who sat in the front row as he spoke.

He said he had discovered “deep, unconscious wounds of rejection” he’d received from his brother during his childhood but that ultimately came from a fear of death that led him to “rejecting the true heart of my wife.”

“When I have caused you so much sorrow and suffering, it’s because I wanted you to do something you couldnʼt possibly do for me, which is to take away my fear of death,” he said. “I wanted you to take that existential threat away.”

“And weʼre aging, haven’t you noticed?” he asked her, laughing. “Weʼre in our late 50s, and all the gray hair is a reminder that weʼre dying; weʼre all on this conveyor belt, and weʼre all gonna fall off.”

An ‘inheritance to life’

In his keynote, Bottaro repeatedly returned to the idea that Christians receive an “inheritance to life” from God rather than an inheritance of fear and death.

“The inheritance of life, the legacy of life, of the Resurrection is the answer to the deepest fear in the human heart: death,” he said, pointing to St. John Paul II’s admonition to “‘Be not afraid!’”

Bottaro also described the saint as a spiritual father who shaped his life.

He spoke of a visit to Poland during a time he was struggling with discouragement in his work. He was sitting at the kitchen table where a young Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) had discovered his father dead. As Bottaro sat, he said he felt “John Paul II just put his arms around me,” after which he was able to return to his professional efforts with a renewed purpose.

He spent the next five years writing “The Personalist Cure,” a book that integrates the saint’s theological teachings with psychology. It was released during the conference, on St. John Paul II’s feast day.

Bottaro said the book is a manual for how to understand healing and mental health through a Catholic lens and is intended for anybody studying mental health or human formation.

Michelle Gardiner, a mother of four who attended the conference, told EWTN News the summit “surrounded me with the reality John Paul II gave his life to: Authentic healing begins with reverencing and protecting the inviolable gift of myself and every other human person.”

“We inadvertently turn away from God, the supreme lover who created us for delight, when we reject the gift because of interpersonal wounding,” she said. “John Paul II knew this: Authentic human flourishing requires receiving and protecting the inviolable gift of the human person.”

El-Sayed was responding to a question from Fox News host Jesse Watters about 2022 remarks in which El-Sayed appeared to equate opposition to sharia law with “white supremacy.” The Senate candidate said he wishes to “practice my faith as I choose.”

“Nobody is trying to push sharia law on anyone else,” he said. “Just like I hope nobody is trying to push canon law on anybody else, because we live in America, where you should have the freedom of your religion.”

El-Sayed brought the comparison up again during a campaign town hall in Muskegon, Michigan, telling a voter that the Constitution protects the right to live by canon law while barring anyone from enforcing it on others.

The remarks have generated controversy for El-Sayed’s apparent equation of sharia law to canon law — two disparate forms of socio-ecclesial governance that help govern the lives of billions of religious adherents worldwide.

Sharia law vs. canon law

Sharia law, which governs Islamic religious practice along with family matters and financial transactions, also deals with aspects of political governance and public law, forming part or all of the political and legal systems in several Muslim-majority countries.

Canon law, on the other hand, regulates only the Catholic Church’s internal structure and functions, including rules about clergy, sacraments, and other ecclesiastical and administrative norms. It does not function as a civil or political legal code for the state or for non-Catholics, as sharia can for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

David Long, dean of the school of professional studies at The Catholic University of America and an assistant professor in the university’s school of canon law, told EWTN News that canon law “governs an identifiable ecclesial community and orders the Church’s life and mission, including sacramental discipline and the exercise of ecclesiastical office.”

Canon law provides a framework for the Church to live out its identity and mission. Sharia, meanwhile — though it is often appended with the word “law” — actually has a broader scope than religious governance, Long said. It directs “life according to God’s will,” including both worship and moral conduct.

Sharia law is applied in various ways in numerous countries throughout the world through the principle of “fiqh” — Islamic jurisprudence that interprets sharia and puts it into practice. It is seen particularly in the Middle East and Africa, though no local or state government in the U.S. practices it.

There is “no single worldwide Islamic legislator,” Long said, and thus there is no “single, universally promulgated code” that can be described as a comprehensive sharia.

Both canon law and sharia can have civil implications, the professor said, noting that Catholic canon law affects issues that cross with civil law, such as marriage contracts.

He pointed to a 2020 Maryland court case, meanwhile, which found that a financial stipulation in an Islamic marriage contract could be enforced, though only if it “satisfied secular contract principles.”

Civil courts in such cases “can recognize legal arrangements made for religious reasons without deciding whether a religion’s teachings are true or binding on the public.”

He noted that Muslims “have the same right as other citizens to bring religious convictions into public debates” and that a law cannot be ruled unconstitutional simply because it happens to agree with a religious teaching.

He acknowledged the appropriateness of being concerned if “a proposal under sharia uses governmental authority to compel religious observance or deny equal citizenship.” But he noted that such concerns should apply equally to all religions.

“I would … resist both blanket reassurance and blanket suspicion when it comes to applying religious-law elements in political discourse, including sharia,” Long said. “Specific proposals deserve scrutiny on their merits.”

“A religious population deserves neither a presumption of political innocence for everything done in its name nor a presumption of collective intent to impose its faith,” he said.

Led by Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, the group visited the cities of Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Dion-le-Val, and Leuven from Oct. 10–20 on the first-of-its-kind pilgrimage.

Among the stops were the Church of Our Lady, home to The Madonna of Bruges sculpture created by Michelangelo; the Basilica of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel, Belgium’s most visited Marian shrine; the tomb of St. Damien of Molokai, a Belgian priest known for his service to the leper community on the island of Molokai in Hawaii; the Catholic University of Leuven, the oldest Catholic university in the world; and several locations associated with Brice, including her hometown of Dion-le-Val, her home parish, the site of her confirmation, and the port where Brice and her family embarked for New York in 1855.

In an interview with EWTN News, Ricken described the pilgrimage for those who took part as a “discovering of roots.”

He explained that most of the pilgrims were from Door County in Wisconsin, which is one of the largest Belgian communities in the United States.

“Thereʼs a Belgian heritage center here and lots of deep connections, and they havenʼt forgotten those,” he shared. “And they just loved Adele from the time she came.”

With this in mind, and since Brice’s cause for canonization was officially opened in February, Ricken and others involved with the pilgrimage thought it could serve as a “moment of connecting with her [Brice’s] roots so that we can understand her better” as well as give the pilgrims in attendance “a chance to reconnect” with their Belgian roots.

Ricken recalled that one of the most impactful stops on the pilgrimage was the Mass celebrated at Brice’s home parish, the Church of St. Martin in Dion-le-Val. This small parish typically has roughly 20 people in attendance — as Catholicism in Belgium is currently at a low point, Ricken explained — but for this Mass, 250 people crammed into the space to celebrate the special occasion.

“I think it gave them a whole new sense of pride in their own history over there. So it was a renewal for them. You could see that. The people were so thrilled to have us,” he shared.

After the Mass — which was concelebrated by Ricken, several other priests from the Diocese of Green Bay who were on the pilgrimage, and local Belgian priests — a reception was held. Despite having a language barrier, Ricken said everyone was still able to communicate and many of the local Belgians recognized the family last names of the American pilgrims and found family connections. He shared that one of his priests from the diocese found a relative of his that he “never knew existed before.”

“It was just beautiful and itʼs going to take quite a while to unpack all of that and understand exactly what happened, but it was deeply enriching for everybody, including me,” he said.

The Church of St. Martin was also the recipient of the Our Lady of Champion Adele Brice icon done by Father Paul Czerwonka from the Diocese of La Crosse in Wisconsin. The icon depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary appearing to Brice and has two angels holding a banner with the message the Blessed Mother gave Brice: “I am the Queen of Heaven … Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation. Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the cross, and how to approach the sacraments. That is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing, I will help you.”

The icon is 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide and took two months to complete.

Ricken said one moment that was very personal for him during the pilgrimage was when the group visited the Catholic University of Leuven. The bishop received his graduate degree in sacred theology and completed his seminary formation at this university in 1980. While the seminary building is now used for student housing, the chapel from the seminary is still in use.

“We were able to arrange for an anointing service of the pilgrims … there in the seminary chapel where I attended Mass every day as a student and loved it so much,” he shared. “And I was able to lead the anointing service. And many people took advantage of that … not everybody, but many did, and it was so beautiful that right there in the former seminary chapel to be able to take care of my own people from here who went on that pilgrimage. That was very touching.”

Reflecting on the pilgrimage as a whole, Ricken said he believes “there will be a lot of answered prayers” through Brice’s intercession.

Ricken said he hopes those who went “see all of their instincts and their love of their culture and language as something thatʼs still alive, still vibrant in certain places, and that the shrine is their connection with home.”

“Theyʼve always felt that, but now they actually saw it themselves. They were able to go to her hometown and experience that connection,” he added.

“And my hope is that theyʼll continue to volunteer and do all the beautiful things they do and have even more commitment to it and be able to identify the work of grace and the Holy Spirit in everything thatʼs happening today in and around the shrine through Adele [Brice] and through the Blessed Mother.”

“We do well to lovingly speak their names, for they are holy members of the family of God,” said Cardinal Frank Leo of Toronto while declaring them “blessed” on Oct. 31 in Savannah, Georgia.

It was a milestone for the Catholic Church in America: The Georgia Martyrs are the first American martyrs for marriage and the first to be beatified in the southern U.S.

Approximately 9,000 people streamed through the doors of the Savannah Convention Center, breaking city attendance records for an indoor event. They traveled from all over Georgia, the U.S., and around the world, arriving by bus, car, and trolley. Some ferried across the Savannah River. Others flew, including priests and lay Catholics representing the hometowns of several friars.

María Isabel Inoriza De Villota, a 12th-generation descendent of one of Friar Francisco’s brothers, came from Spain with her 16-year-old son, Imanol.

“Ever since I was a child, I have witnessed the deep devotion my parents held for Francisco,” she said. “We have always turned to him, seeking his protection and help.”

Her mother prayed “fervently” for the beatification, which is “a dream come true,” she said.

Father Pablo Migone, the vicar for mission advancement in the Savannah Diocese and a longtime promoter of the cause, said 2,000 attendees “tops” were projected. But registrations kept pouring in.

U.S. beatifications are rare. But it was more than that. The diocese has been educating the faithful about the martyrs for a decade. “The fruit and the story are resonating in people’s hearts and minds,” Migone said.

Until learning of the beatification, many residents of La Albuera, Spain, where Friar Antonio was baptized, hadn’t heard of him. Now the town square is being renamed in his honor.

“God is full of surprises,” said Father Antonio Jesús Marín Romo, the town’s parish priest. “This comes at a crucial moment when we were in need of a catalyst for the work we wish to begin in the parish.”

The Franciscans’ story began in the 16th century when they arrived from Spain. By 1595, they had established missions along the Georgia coast, evangelizing the Indigenous Guale people. Serving like Peace Corps volunteers, they succeeded where other orders had failed.

Two years later, however, faith clashed with local custom. A baptized convert in line for chiefdom insisted on a second wife. When the friars refused to compromise Christ’s teaching on marriage, a war party murdered the friars, mission by mission. A sixth friar, Francisco de Ávila, was tortured but lived to tell the tale. The missions were eventually reestablished, and Catholicism thrived.

The bilingual service on Oct. 31 began with a procession down the runway-like aisle created from joining four exhibition spaces, the center’s largest configuration.

More than 200 clergy, including Franciscan Friars of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Cardinal Leo, 31 bishops and archbishops, over 100 deacons and seminarians, and the apostolic nuncio, were joined by nearly 200 members of the Knights of Columbus, the Knights of Malta, Knights (and Dames) of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Knights of Peter Claver. Seventy ciboria waited at the altar. 

Cardinal Leo read the apostolic letter and declared the Georgia Martyrs “blessed” by having “placed the saving truth of the Gospel before their own safety.”

Atlanta Archbishop Gregory Hartmayer and Archbishop Joan-Enric Vives i Sicilia, bishop emeritus of Urgell, who represented the Spanish Episcopal Conference, read English and Spanish translations of the apostolic letter, respectively.

The letter declared the martyrs’ feast day as Sept. 22, the octave day of Friar Pedro’s martyrdom. 

Thunderous applause erupted at the unveiling of the official portrait of the martyrs, showing them in humble repose and bathed in golden light. Before and after the beatification, the crowd toured the adjacent Georgia Martyrs Museum and art exhibition.

By worldly standards, it might seem like the martyrs failed, Cardinal Leo said during his homily. “But it is not so.”

They succeeded by embracing “the call to holiness, which further led them to embrace the call to consecrated life, the call to the sacred priesthood, the call to missionary work, the call to evangelize, the call to share and defend the faith and, ultimately, the call to give their very life.”

But “how compelled are we” to “follow Jesus’ call to follow him?” he asked.

A holy life requires defending the truth and “always put[ting] Christ first,” he stated, even while striving for unity in the world. “Polarization is not from God.”

The martyrs also bore witness to “the Christian doctrine of marriage and held to that divine truth to the shedding of their own blood,” he said, stressing the sacred nature of the family “founded upon the covenantal, sacramental, indissoluble union of one man and one woman.”

In his first public audience after recent surgery, Pope Leo XIV said that protecting marriage and family “is more urgent than ever before.”

The beatification itself was “perfect timing,” said Christine Camp, who came from Atlanta with more than a dozen other Catholics who had just attended a three-day retreat to pray for restoration of their marriages.

Moms and dads with children had traveled from near and far. “It’s our pilgrimage,” said Theodora Ferrant, who came from Pensacola, Florida, with her husband and two children.

“I truly believe through the intercession of Blessed Pedro de Corpa and four companions there will be greater respect for the dignity and character of holy matrimony,” Savannah Bishop Stephen Parkes said.

“May the witness of these holy men inspire fidelity between spouses called into the covenantal bond of holy matrimony and help create a renewed commitment to the growth of faith-filled families in the state of Georgia and beyond.”

The celebration will continue Nov. 1 with a Mass of thanksgiving at the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist.

The archbishop added his name to a lawsuit that includes Rockville Centre Bishop John Barres, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, and the Little Sisters of the Poor. Hicks’ addition to the suit was announced by the religious liberty law firm Becket on Oct. 30.

The New York Archdiocese joins the suit after it was launched in July of this year by Catholic objectors to the state’s new suicide law. The Catholic plaintiffs in that suit argued that the state’s assisted suicide rules would force them to participate in the process of helping suicidal patients kill themselves, a violation of core Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life.

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, a federal court ordered that the state could not enforce the suicide rules against the Catholic objectors while the suit itself played out.

Hicks said on Oct. 30 that Catholics “are guided by the compassion of Jesus to serve those of every background who are in need of healing.”

“We refuse to allow New York to force us to harm the very ones we’ve been called to care for,” he said.

Hicks is the latest Catholic prelate to join the legal fight against assisted suicide in the U.S. A total of four bishops and dozens of religious sisters have sued the governments of New York and Illinois after the states enacted assisted suicide programs.

In addition to the New York ruling, the Catholic objectors in Illinois — which include the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Diocese of Springfield — have secured victories at federal court, with a judge ordering the state to hold off on enforcing suicide rules against them while the suits play out.

In New York, the Catholic healthcare ministry ArchCare also joined the lawsuit against the state. Among ArchCare’s facilities is Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, which offers hospice care for those with six months or less to live.

Becket describes the Calvary facility as “the only fully-accredited acute care hospital in the U.S. devoted exclusively to the palliative care of adult patients with life-limiting illnesses.”

“We express our sincere gratitude for all those who work to provide necessary resources to women, babies, and families during pregnancy and beyond,” Bishop Daniel Thomas, chair of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said in an Oct. 27 statement.

“Pregnancy help organizations, maternity homes, medical and resource help centers, and adoption agencies provide heroic services every day to anyone in need,” he said. “Many pregnancy care centers offer free medical services, including ultrasounds, prenatal and postnatal care, and referrals for free or low-cost childbirth.”

“They also provide resources such as baby clothes and diapers, childcare, career services, referrals for housing, and much more,” the bishop said.

Pregnancy Help Appreciation Week, which will be celebrated from Nov. 9–13 this year, is a celebration created by Heartbeat International — a network of pregnancy centers that offer pregnancy help as an alternative to abortion clinics.

A report published last November by the Charlotte Lozier Institute found that in 2024, pro-life pregnancy resource centers provided over $452 million worth of support to women in crisis pregnancies and struggling women with young children, including medical care, support and education services, and material goods.

The bishops’ statement noted that about 2,750 life-affirming pregnancy centers currently operate in the United States.

To mark the celebration, Thomas also recognized “the life-changing help being provided by the countless volunteers in our parishes that accompany vulnerable women and families through our nationwide Walking with Moms in Need initiative,” a parish-based initiative created by the bishops to provide support to pregnant women and mothers.

“May all those who serve and protect life be encouraged by our prayers, our good works and our financial support to build a culture of life,” the bishop said.

Florida attorney general talks fetal personhood with Lila Rose

Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who is Catholic, discussed the prospect of “fetal personhood” — the belief that unborn children should be legally recognized as persons at the moment of conception — on a podcast this month with Live Action President Lila Rose.

When Rose — who is also Catholic — asked Uthmeier whether there will be a day when abortion has fully come to an end in Florida, Uthmeier told her: “I certainly pray so; I do believe we have the truth on our side and the truth will prevail.”

“But we as faith-driven people, as pro-life advocates, weʼve got to continue going out and educating and explaining, getting people to soften their hearts and listen,” he said.

Uthmeier discussed his opposition to surrogacy and expressed concerns about people coming to Florida to “purchase a baby.” He called the practice “very dangerous and horrific” but said he hopes it can raise discussions about whether this is a form of slavery.

“It is going to bring the conversation of fetal personhood and life front and center,” Uthmeier said. “Is this a human being? Which I believe truthfully, factually, the answer is unequivocally yes. If it is a human being, you cannot contract to buy and sell this individual.”

Pro-life activists mark 59 years since UK’s Abortion Act

In London on Oct. 27, pro-life advocates gathered in Parliament Square to mark 59 years since the passing of the U.K.’s Abortion Act, which legalized abortion in England, Wales, and Scotland under certain conditions.

More than 11 million abortions have taken place in the U.K. since the act was passed, according to government statistics compiled by Right To Life UK.

Bede Teeton from March for Life UK told EWTN News: “It is our duty to commemorate those who have been affected by abortion, and those who have sadly lost their lives through it too.”

Former Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg told EWTN News: “Fifty-nine years ago was a black day in the civilization of the U.K. We did something that was fundamentally wrong, and itʼs gotten worse. We now allow abortion up to birth. We kill disabled babies because they are disabled. Society is quite schizophrenic about this, because we all have all sorts of disability rights acts, but then we murder disabled babies. So I think it is a day of infamy.”

Pro-life runners complete global relay

Thousands of pro-life runners cumulatively completed a 5,124-mile relay this week, which concluded at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, with the men’s and the women’s cross-country and track teams finishing the final stretch.

The 2026 A-Cross America Relay, which is organized by the pro-life organization LIFE Runners, had 26,257 participants in 4,061 cities across 53 nations. EWTN Global Catholic Network was a sponsor of the event.

Many of the runners wore jerseys displaying the Trinity and a cross with “Jer. 1:5,” written on it, in reference to the Bible verse: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.”

The jersey displays the text “REMEMBER The Unborn” as runners seek to promote a culture of life to the public in every location they run.

Elliot Hartley contributed to this story.

For centuries, the Catholic Church widely observed All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1) as an octave, extending the holy celebration to eight days.

The observance was established by Pope Sixtus IV in the 15th century and demoted in the liturgical calendar around the middle of the 20th century, although some Catholics still mark the eight-day observance.

Notably, the Church itself still indirectly acknowledges the ancient eight-day octave in its granting of plenary indulgences for the first week of November.

What is a plenary indulgence?

A plenary indulgence is a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin.

It is not a forgiveness of sin but the remission of punishment for sins already forgiven. It may apply either to oneself or to souls already in purgatory.

In order to obtain a plenary indulgence the faithful must — in addition to being in the state of grace — both have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin (even venial sin), have sacramentally confessed their sins and received the Eucharist (either within or outside of Mass), and must pray for the intentions of the Holy Father.

What about the All Saints’ octave?

The Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary, in its “Enchiridion Indulgentiarum” (“Handbook of Indulgences”), states that the faithful can obtain a plenary indulgence for the faithful departed “every day, from the 1st to the 8th of November,” if, in addition to fulfilling the normal terms of a plenary indulgence, one “devoutly visit[s] a cemetery and at least mentally pray[s] for the dead.”

The conditions for a plenary indulgence can be fulfilled a few days before or after performing the works to gain the indulgence, but it is appropriate that Communion and the prayer take place on the same day that the work is completed.

The All Saints’ octave was notably extended throughout the entire month of November in both 2020 and 2021 amid concerns about avoiding large gatherings of people in churches or cemeteries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This story was updated on Oct. 31, 2026.

“In Jesus’ Name” takes viewers into the world of what an exorcist does and why exorcisms were established, and offers guidance on things that the faithful should consider staying away from in order to keep themselves safe.

The docuseries features prominent exorcists, theologians, and survivors of demonic oppression and examines how evil operates, how it enters human lives, and how it can be overcome. Through personal testimonies and expert insight, the docuseries explores the tension between good and evil, biblical teaching on exorcism, the reality of spiritual warfare, and, above all, the hope and power of Jesus Christ.

The creators of “In Jesus’ Name” seek to take exorcisms out of the sensational and instead provide an accurate view of how they are conducted and how people have found deliverance.

“With ‘In Jesus’ Name,’ we wanted to demystify the rite of exorcism and invite audiences to see how the Church responds to the presence of evil in an authoritative but compassionate and deeply human way,” Peter Gagnon, president of EWTN Studios, said in a press release.

“By giving viewers rare access to experienced exorcists, theologians and those who have confronted profound spiritual darkness firsthand, the series reveals not only the reality of spiritual warfare but the truth at its heart: the battle is real, but God’s love and grace is greater,” Gagnon said.

Father Dan Reehil, pastor at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Columbia, Tennessee, and an appointed exorcist for the Diocese of Nashville, is one of the authoritative figures in the docuseries, alongside Father Vincent Lampert, who served for nearly 20 years as the designated exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, as well as Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee, a theological expert on the history of the Catholic rite of exorcism.

In an interview with “EWTN News Nightly,” Reehil emphasized that “the devil is real" and that while “thereʼs a lot of banter on social media and also the internet about the devil,” the faithful should focus their time “on God, particularly on Jesus Christ, who is the one who crushes Satan.”

He explained that when Lucifer rejected Godʼs plan and one-third of the angels followed Lucifer, those angels became the demons that were cast down to earth.

“Theyʼre cast down to earth, and now they roam the earth, and their No. 1 enemy, according to Revelation Chapter 12, is theyʼre making war against those who keep Godʼs commands and bear witness to Jesus Christ,” he said. “So if thatʼs you, you should at least be aware thereʼs a target on your back, [but] not to be afraid of it. Itʼs actually a badge of honor because youʼre in this great elect group of people that he hates because of who we are.”

Reehil shared that “the best thing you can do is have a very robust prayer life, have a deep relationship with Jesus Christ as a true disciple. And we use the same weapons. We use obedience to God, we use humility, we use purity, all the aspects of Our Lady would be the weapons we use in this battle.”

Created by EWTN Studios and Cumberland Creative, “In Jesus’ Name” is available for streaming on EWTN+ and EWTN.com as of Oct. 28. The first episode will also be available on the EWTN YouTube channel.

The shortwave service, which has operated under the call sign WEWN since its launch in 1992, will shut down on Oct. 31. EWTN’s board of governors recently confirmed the decision.

Warsaw pointed to the decline of shortwave radio consumption as one of the driving factors leading to the station’s closure. A widely used media source in the 20th century, shortwave’s popularity has decreased in the 21st century amid the rapid global uptake in streaming and digital platforms.

Operating costs at the WEWN network have been high relative to the declining number of shortwave listeners, Warsaw said, and the aging facility was in need of significant and expensive repairs, which he said would not be a “prudent stewardship of our resources.”

“As we shift the use of shortwave to newer and more far-reaching distribution channels, we remain grateful for the co-workers and benefactors who sustained the service for so long,” he said.

Among them, Warsaw recalled the late Dutch Catholic entrepreneur Piet Derkson and his wife, Trudy, whose $26 million gift made the construction of WEWN possible and helped Mother Angelica, EWTN’s foundress, advance the network’s mission of sharing the truth of the Gospel around the world.

“We are also mindful that it was Shortwave which inspired and allowed the growth of EWTN Radio,” he noted. Since its launch, EWTN Radio has grown to currently broadcast over 600 AM/FM stations worldwide, in addition to airing on satellite and digital platforms.

In 2008, EWTN had previously ceased direct shortwave broadcasts to North America. Since then, its English-language shortwave service had reached audiences primarily in Africa and the Middle East. The Spanish-language shortwave coverage was directed to Latin America.

EWTN Radio’s content continues to reach these audiences through its digital platforms, online streaming services, mobile applications, podcasts, satellite distribution, and its extensive network of AM/FM affiliates.

The award-winning team at the global Catholic network’s flagship nightly newscast, “EWTN News Nightly,” will kick off election night coverage at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 3, with an hourlong, scene-setting special.

Anchors Veronica Dudo and Erik Rosales will be joined by EWTN News Vice President and Editorial Director Matthew Bunson, along with correspondents Owen Jensen, Roselle Reyes, Paola Flynn, “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” host Abi Galván, and other colleagues on election night.

At 9 p.m. ET on election night, the network will return to the air with a half-hour special as early results come in.

The programming will include coverage of referendums on abortion in Virginia, Nevada, Idaho, and Missouri; key House, Senate, and gubernatorial races; and several other referendum questions Catholics are following closely.

Joining the team for analysis of the elections and the issues surrounding it will be Josh Altic of Ballotpedia, political analyst Tim Rosales, Kelsey Pritchard of SBA Pro-Life America, Alejandro Ramos of Ramos Research Institute, and Kristi Hamrick of Students for Life of America, among others.

"EWTN News offers vital and timely coverage and analysis of the midterm elections from the Catholic perspective,” Bunson said of the coverage.

“We provide reporting and commentary across multiple platforms and multiple languages, but above all we deliver professional award-winning journalism that is faithful to Catholic teaching and that touches on all of the issues that are of concern to Catholics,” he said.

“EWTN News is uniquely positioned to be the go-to news outlet for a proper understanding of the results of the vote and their implications for Catholics in the United States and around the world,” Bunson added.

To Bunson’s point, on Nov. 4, the network will also offer an expanded one-hour edition of “EWTN News Nightly” recapping all of the major results.

The coverage will be accessible on multiple platforms, including cable television, YouTube, EWTN.com, Roku, Amazon Fire, and the EWTN app, which is free in the Google Play and Apple stores.

The state earlier this year became the latest in the U.S. to officially remove all limits on abortion. Lawmakers passed a law that permits abortion at any point in pregnancy for any reason; Democratic Gov. Maura Healey signed the bill on Aug. 10.

Opponents of abortion subsequently launched an effort to suspend and potentially repeal the law, seeking enough signatures to enact a “veto referendum” that would put the law up for a statewide vote in 2028.

The advocates needed to collect about 37,000 signatures to place the measure on the ballot; collecting just under 50,000 signatures, meanwhile, would suspend the law prior to that election.

Myrna Maloney Flynn, the president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, told EWTN News on Oct. 30 that the initiative had collected more than 100,000 signatures toward the effort.

The pro-life coalition will deliver the signatures to the Massachusetts secretary of state, she said. “Then we’ll wait for his office to formally confirm the results.”

“We do not know how long his office will take to verify,” she said.

She said the governor could enact an “emergency preamble” that would nullify the presumptive suspension of the law, though Healey “has not indicated her intentions” in that regard. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the initiative.

Upon its passage, the state abortion measure drew rebuke from the state’s Catholic bishops, who described it as “a radical measure which is gravely immoral.”

The advocacy group CatholicVote, meanwhile, called for Healey — who identifies as Catholic — to be excommunicated.

“Healey is a Catholic in a state of grave sin. She has publicly and now legislatively cooperated in the destruction of innocent human life,” CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt said at the time.

Commenting on the ad, Kelsey Reinhardt, president and CEO of the advocacy organization CatholicVote, said: “I take him at his word that he is a man of prayer and he, as an American Muslim, deserves the same religious liberty we Catholics have fought to protect for two centuries.”

“What I question is something else,” Reinhardt continued. “El-Sayed has repeatedly answered fair questions with false equivalences, and he has put Catholics and our Church at the center of them.”

Reinhardt was referring to El-Sayed’s repeated equation of Catholic canon law with sharia. Addressing concerns about his Islamic faith and fears over the imposition of sharia, in a video shared on social media El-Sayed emphasized that if elected to the Senate, “I’m going to swear an oath to that U.S. Constitution.”

In the video, El-Sayed told a town hall questioner in Michigan, who identified himself as a Christian, that “because of the U.S. Constitution you have the right to live according to canon law and also because of the U.S. Constitution you don’t get to enforce canon law on anyone else.”

Reinhardt squarely accuses El-Sayed of drawing a “false equivalence” between the two systems. “The Code of Canon Law is the internal legal order of the Catholic Church. It governs how the Church administers sacraments, organizes dioceses, and disciplines its own clergy. It makes no claim over the criminal code of any nation,” she explained.

”Classical sharia is a different kind of thing. Many American Muslims understand it as a matter of personal devotion, and that is their right,” she continued. “In its historic jurisprudence, though, sharia is a comprehensive legal order. It reaches into family law, criminal punishment, and the governance of the state. That is why it is written into the constitutions of several nations, and canon law is written into none,” Reinhardt pointed out.

“One can respect both traditions and still see that they are not the same. A Senate candidate should know the difference,” she said.

The issue first came to the forefront during an Aug. 24 interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters, when El-Sayed asked, “Do you know what canon law is, Jesse? ... canon law is the name for Christian law … Nobody is trying to push sharia law on anyone else. Just like I hope nobody is trying to push canon law on anybody else, because we live in an America where you should have the freedom of your religion.”

Following that exchange, Catholic Answers’ Todd Aglialoro also pointed out the problematic comparison and why the issue is a relevant one.

"Sharia is a broad term for codes of Muslim conduct,” Aglialoro explained. “In many countries that are predominantly Muslim, Sharia is deeply embedded into civil and criminal law, with its prescriptions, judgments, and punishments serving a governing function.”

In the West, Aglialoro continued, sharia has become a flashpoint of controversy in places “where Muslim-dense locales experience conflict between local law enforcement, based on liberal Western values, and neighborhood Muslim councils dispensing gray-market Sharia judgments that often contradict those values.”

“The majority of these hot spots are in Europe, but as Islam grows in certain regions of the United States, there has been talk of measures to prevent that kind of ‘parallel justice’ from taking root here," he noted.

Gabriel Said Reynolds, who serves on the Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue with Muslims and is a professor of Islamic Studies and Theology at the University of Notre Dame, told EWTN News that for Muslims, “God’s will for humanity is sharia.”

Sharia includes explicit implications for non-Muslims. For example, Islamic law allows for a head tax known as “jizya” on Jews and Christians. At different times Christians in the Islamic world have suffered from abduction, enslavement, subjugation, and forced conversion.

In contrast, the Code of Canon Law is neither “Christian law” nor a civil code for all Christians, but orders the life of the Catholic Church. Unlike sharia, as Aglialoro points out, “Catholic canon law is not about superimposing a full spectrum of doctrinal and moral teaching onto the everyday life of religious adherents. It is more like a thick binder of organizational bylaws." 

Professor David Long, who teaches canon law at The Catholic University of America, told EWTN News that comparing canon law and sharia may help illustrate believers’ “freedom to observe religious obligations” but “does not establish that canon law and sharia share the same sources of authority or jurisdiction.”

Long said of El-Sayed’s comparison: “As an appeal to the religious freedom protected by the Constitution, the analogy makes a useful point: Catholics and Muslims alike may seek freedom to observe their religious obligations without thereby claiming authority to impose those obligations on their fellow citizens. That constitutional argument does not depend on the two legal traditions being equivalent.”

“Islamic jurisprudence also provides rules for civil government, including those affecting non-Muslims. The distinction is substantial, but it must be stated without reducing canon law to administrative rules or treating every Muslim’s religious observance as a proposal for state enforcement,” Long added.

For Christians, Long contends, the central issue concerning sharia is the distinction between religious freedom and coercive state authority.

At the time of publication, El-Sayed’s campaign staff had not responded to an EWTN News request for the candidate to clarify his position on the matter.

In an email to students that was reported on by the student-led publication at the college, The Dartmouth, on Wednesday, university president Sian Leah Beilock said Schnell had resigned and was “leaving the university” after an independent, faculty-led committee determined that Schnell may have violated university policies when he used AI in select academic works and popular articles without proper disclosure to the publications he was writing for. Dartmouth will have an interim provost through 2028, Beilock said. 

Several fellow Catholic scholars, including some who have criticized Schnell’s apparent use of AI in writing, expressed surprise at the news, which underscores the thorny questions surrounding the rapidly growing adoption of AI tools in professional writing, particularly in higher education.

“Obviously, I am against AI writing. And yet I feel whiplash here,” said Jennifer Frey, a Catholic philosopher at the University of Virginia, on social media. “Who can hang a man in the wild, wild west, which is an accurate description of AI in higher ed right now? Especially at Dartmouth, which has so strongly encouraged [AI] use in the name of ‘not being left behind’!”

A native of Venezuela, Schnell, a mathematical biologist, was named chief academic officer of the vaunted Ivy League school at the start of the 2025-26 academic year. His appointment generated positive attention among some Catholics in higher education, who expressed appreciation for Schnell’s push for a more classical vision of university life centered on formation in beauty, truth, and friendship.

“His promotion was such a ray of hope in higher education, especially at elite universities,” said Jeremy Tate, the founder and CEO of the Classical Learning Test (CLT), an alternative to the SAT and ACT designed around classical education.

Beyond the secular higher education world, Schnell, who formerly served as a dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, was also a leading voice of reform at Catholic universities.

In June, Schnell addressed members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at the the group’s plenary assembly in Orlando, Florida, telling the bishops that they “could be more vocal” and “more pushy” when it comes to making sure that Catholic universities are faithful to their unique mission of forming saints.

Controversial AI usage

But controversy began to swirl following a September article by The Dartmouth, which reported that several of Schnell’s public writings since 2022, including academic papers and op-eds for various newspapers, had been flagged by Pangram, a leading AI-detection tool, as overwhelmingly “AI-written.”

The Dartmouth’s report was prompted by a prior investigative piece by the publication Semafor, which in a broader investigation of AI-generated writing in major newspapers had flagged one of Schnell’s op-eds — a piece for The Washington Post about combating AI-facilitated cheating in schools — as being “100%” AI-generated.

In response to The Dartmouth’s September investigative report, Schnell said in an emailed statement that he uses AI for “language refinement, copyediting, improving clarity and organization and making writing processes more efficient,” but “review[s] the final text and take[s] responsibility for its content.”

“I develop ideas and arguments, conduct the research, evaluate the evidence and sources, determine the structure, prepare drafts and decide what appears in the final text,” Schnell wrote to The Dartmouth. “I regard these technologies as assistive tools. They do not identify the problem, design the research project, guarantee the validity of research results, interpretations, citations, conclusions or substitute for my research, intellectual judgment or authorship.”

He also added that AI detectors are “known to be unreliable.”

“There’s evidence that they’re biased against nonnative English speakers, such as myself,” Schnell wrote.

Schnell wrote three op-eds for the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, this year, two of which were on the theme of AI use and its effects on education. All three were flagged in The Dartmouth story on the provost’s AI usage. Schnell did not comment when asked Thursday if he used AI tools in drafting his commentaries for the Register. He referred questions about the Dartmouth College investigation and his resignation to his attorneys, who did not respond to an inquiry before publication but responded to the Register on Oct. 30.

“Dr. Schnell has decided to resign as Provost and from the Dartmouth faculty. He came to this difficult decision out of deep respect for his colleagues and the broader Dartmouth community, and so as not to bring further distraction to the institution. Although he was not afforded a meaningful opportunity to present his account during the College’s internal review, he has chosen to allow the Dartmouth community to move forward,” Andrew Miltenberg, Schnell’s attorney, told the Register in an email.

“He remains grateful to the colleagues and students who made his time at Dartmouth so meaningful. Over a distinguished academic career, Dr. Schnell has made lasting contributions to higher education, and he looks forward to continuing that work.”

In his public writings and in interviews, including with the Register, Schnell often addressed the current and future effects of AI on education, saying that he sees the rise of AI as an opportunity for classrooms to return to more low-tech, personalized modes of learning.

At the same time, Schnell has also written that he believes educators can make positive usage of large language model (LLM) AI tools.

“Used with discipline, [LLMs] can be genuinely useful,” he wrote, in part, for the Register in one of his op-eds. “A professor may use them to prepare discussion questions. A researcher may use them to survey literature more quickly. An administrator may use them to accelerate routine writing. It would be foolish to deny their utility.”

Catholic reaction

In the full investigative report into Schnell’s use of AI, published by Dartmouth, fellow faculty determined that Schnell had used AI to “meaningfully alter his writing in violation of at least one publication’s AI use and/or disclosure requirement, failed to disclose his use of AI in clear violation of a national newspaper’s stated policy, was not forthcoming about his AI use, and fell short of the standards set forth by” various academic codes of conduct. 

Some higher-ed reform advocates, however, have questioned whether the outspoken Catholic scholar was treated fairly in the process.

“Was he treated with extra scrutiny because of his disposition?” asked Tate, who suggested that AI usage is widespread among university administrators. “I think there’s a conversation to be had.”

“I’m not saying he didn’t make a mistake, but this is a huge loss,” Tate added. “I think everybody loses here.”

Frey told the Register that she found Dartmouth’s decision shocking, in part because the university appears to have “suddenly drawn very clear and sharp lines with the provost’s own use of AI” when the acceptable norms of AI use in higher education remain largely undefined.

Additionally, she noted that Dartmouth itself has actively promoted the use of LLMs to “augment” traditional methods of education. According to The New York Times, the Ivy League school even entered into an agreement last year with Anthropic and Amazon Web Services to provide its faculty and students access to AI tech.

“Perhaps a better outcome, for Dartmouth and for us all, would have been to use the revelation of Schnell’s AI use to start a serious and transparent conversation on our campuses about what we think the lines [about AI use] are and why people and institutions draw them where they do,” she said.

“I am inclined to the view that there is a lot more for us to figure out before we begin to discipline and punish,” she added.

Tate said that he hopes Schnell has additional opportunities to “have a big impact somewhere in higher ed,” noting that “he’s got a lot he can give.”

He also said that others must work to carry forward the vision of higher-education reform that Schnell helped reintroduce into the national discourse, including conversations about the fundamental purpose of a university education.

“He was entering into that in a way that was really beautiful, with really timeless wisdom,” Tate said. “So let’s hold on to this mission. It may be the only mission that can save higher ed right now.”

This story was updated at 5:28 p.m. ET on Oct. 30, 2026, with the statement from Schnell’s attorney.

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

Leo, who has mostly lived outside of the U.S. since the 1980s, “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so,” the Holy See said in a statement provided to EWTN News.

The Vatican confirmed that “in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, [Leo] has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago” ahead of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections.

Leo confirmed through the Vatican’s statement that “during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so.”

“The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,” the statement added.

Leo’s absentee ballot marks the first time a Catholic pope has voted in a U.S. election in Church history. The United States was established in 1776, about 18 centuries after the founding of the Catholic Church.

The Holy Father, the first pope from the United States, is still a U.S. citizen and also holds Peruvian citizenship, though his election to the papacy raised esoteric questions about those national statuses, such as whether or not he would still pay taxes in the U.S. while serving as head of the Catholic Church.

A 2025 bill proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives moved to “protect the citizenship of, and provide tax-exempt status to, any American elected as the supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church,” a clear reference to Leo’s then-new papacy. The bill ultimately stalled in committee.

Unique among world leaders, the pope serves simultaneously as the universal spiritual head of the Catholic Church and as the head of the Holy See, a distinct sovereign entity under international law that serves as the central government of the Catholic Church.

Following the news of the pope’s vote, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a statement that Catholic Americans “are blessed to be able to participate in our nation’s political and public life.”

“With the midterm elections approaching in the United States, the Conference has been encouraging Catholics to exercise their right to vote and to do so in a way that places our faith before our politics,” the bishops said. “In voting, our Holy Father sets the example that encourages each citizen to exercise their civic responsibility.”

Voting history obtained by EWTN News from the Illinois government shows that, prior to being elected pope, Leo voted in multiple U.S. elections while living outside the country, including primary and general elections in 2012, 2016, and 2024.

It is not clear what type of ballot Leo received for the 2026 election. The U.S. government says that overseas citizens whose “intent to return [to the U.S.] is uncertain” are only eligible to receive a “federal-only” ballot, meaning Leo may not have voted in state or local elections on the ballot he cast this year.

This story was updated at 12:40 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, with information on Pope Leo XIV’s voting history and information on overseas ballot rules, and at 1:20 p.m. ET with a statement from the U.S. bishops.

On Saturday, Oct. 31, and on Sunday, Nov. 1, Evening Prayer 1 of the Liturgy of the Hours is for All Saints and the vigil Mass on Saturday will observe the Mass of All Saints.

What is the solemnity of All Saints?

Solemnities rank above feasts and memorials and are the highest liturgical celebrations in the Catholic Church. They honor significant mysteries of the Christian faith, including events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, as well as key saints.

The solemnity of All Saints celebrates all Christian saints — those formally canonized by the Church and those who are not but have attained heaven. It is typically a holy day of obligation.

The observance of the solemnity begins with evening prayer (first vespers) the evening before on Oct. 31 — known as All Hallows’ Eve or Halloween — and is followed on Nov. 2 by All Souls' Day, a day in which the entire Church prays for all of the dead.

Solemnities that fall on Saturdays and Mondays

Sometimes a solemnity that falls on a Sunday will be moved to a Monday.

For example, in 2024, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8 fell on a Sunday in Advent so the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) transferred the solemnity to the Monday.

The Vatican has clarified that Catholics in the United States must still attend Mass on holy days of obligation even when they are transferred to Mondays or Saturdays, correcting a long-standing practice in the U.S. Church.

The USCCB liturgical calendars for 2026 and 2027 can be found here and here.

The archdiocese announced it will give the Nostra Aetate Award to the billionaire businessman and philanthropist Michael Sacks at the Oct. 29 banquet. He is CEO of the investment firm GCM Grosvenor, the president of Sacks Family Foundation, and a board member of the Obama Foundation.

Sacks, through his foundation, has donated to philanthropic efforts related to education, arts, veterans, and other issues. His contributions also include $500,000 to Planned Parenthood of Illinois from 2020 to 2022 and $600,000 to the Prairie State Access Fund in 2026, which was created by Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker with the help of philanthropists to support the “reproductive health ecosystem” of the state and combat federal restrictions “on abortion and gender affirming care.”

Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, has not publicly referenced Sacks’ support for these organizations. Rather, in a statement, he described Sacks as a “well-respected leader in Chicago and in the Jewish community.”

His statement explained the Nostra Aetate Award is named after the Second Vatican Council document of the same name, which was intended to build stronger relations with non-Christian religions, including Judaism.

“Honoring a leader, shaped by his Jewish faith, for the gifts he brings to society through his leadership, generosity and talent, acknowledges this shared divine heritage, distinct from specific contemporary political or doctrinal disputes,” Cupich said in his statement.

Cupich said the honor “recognizes [the personʼs] dignity” and role in the community “without implying an endorsement of every statement or stance” the person has. He said the recognition helps bring about “conditions necessary for principled dialogue” and that such dialogue “cannot occur if respect is contingent upon complete agreement on Church doctrine or political policy.”

The primary purpose of the banquet is to raise money for seminarians.

‘Scandalizing the faithful’

Pushback against Cupich for his decision to give the award to Sacks has come from the Chicago-based Illinois Right to Life, which was founded in 1968 to “honor the dignity and sanctity of human life at all stages.”

The pro-life group launched a petition “demanding [Cupich] withdraw his award to Planned Parenthood Financier Michael Sacks,” which has garnered nearly 4,000 signatures as of the day of the banquet.

Illinois Right to Life President Mary Kate Zander told EWTN News that the archdiocese has not responded to the petition. Because Cupich stood by his plan to give Sacks the award, the group will hold a protest outside of the IBEW Local 134 in Chicago, where the banquet will be held.

"Weʼre concerned about the scandal that it creates,” Zander, who is Catholic, told EWTN News when asked about the primary motivation for the protest.

In addition to concerns about the funding of organizations that promote abortion access, Illinois Right to Life has noted Sacks in 2013 signed a letter endorsing same-sex marriage and helped organize business leaders to advocate for it, according to local media reports. Equality Illinois, an LGBT advocacy group, gave Sacks its 2015 Equality Illinois Business Leadership Award in recognition of his role.

Zander said Cupich is “leading people astray and is scandalizing the faithful” by honoring Sacks. She said “we’re also concerned with this man’s soul” and said the cardinal has a responsibility to “hold people accountable … on their public stances.”

Illinois Right to Life alleged granting Sacks the award violates rules set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The USCCB document “Catholics in Political Life” states: “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.”

The USCCB did not immediately reply to a request for comment on whether Cupich’s decision violates any USCCB rules. EWTN News also reached out to GCM Grosvenor to request a comment from Sacks but did not receive a response.

Cupich doubles down

In his Oct. 26 statement about the Nostra Aetate Award, Cupich acknowledged his decision created backlash but did not mention any concerns related to Sacks’ position on abortion or same-sex marriage.

Rather, Cupich said the archdiocese received criticism for its decision to “honor a person who does not hold to core beliefs of the Catholic Church, primary among them being the divinity of Jesus Christ” and said the backlash was about Sacks’ Jewish faith.

“Refusing to honor or engage with Jews solely because they hold conflicting religious or political positions can risk mimicking historic patterns of antisemitism through exclusion and bigotry, which, frighteningly, is on the rise,” he said. “Nostra Aetate urges us to be proactive in separating personal and community respect from doctrinal agreement, ensuring that disagreement does not regress into hostility or social ostracization. This we cannot tolerate.”

Nostra Aetate states that the Church “decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.” On the 60th anniversary of the document, Pope Leo XIV said “all of my predecessors have condemned antisemitism with clear words” since the Second Vatican Council, “and so I too confirm that the Church does not tolerate antisemitism and fights against it, on the basis of the Gospel itself.”

Cupich’s statement does not name the critics he is referring to. The archdiocese did not immediately respond to an inquiry for clarification.

Zander said Illinois Right to Life is “the only organization that has formally put out any kind of statement” about the award and their concern “has nothing to do with that.” She said Cupich’s statement “is confusing for people” who may infer that his decision to double down “is a response to antisemitism” and the disagreement is “an issue of this man not being Catholic.”

“[Cupich is] distracting from the fact that this man is clearly a supporter of abortion at a very grand scale,” Zander said. “... He’s trying to distract from the fact that [he is also] a same-sex marriage supporter.”

“The cardinal doesn’t want that to be the conversation,” she said. “He wants the conversation to be about that man’s faith background; his ethnic background.”

None of the criticisms published by Illinois Right to Life comment on Sacks’ Jewish faith or ethnic identity.

Last year, Illinois Right to Life launched a similar campaign against Cupich’s decision to give an award to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, who consistently voted in favor of abortion access. Durbin, who is Catholic, declined the award amid the backlash, which included criticisms from other bishops.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the proposed rule changes would remove demographic questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, and would count for congressional apportionment only citizens and lawful permanent residents.

The proposal says “illegal aliens (among others) should not be included in the apportionment count, as they are not true inhabitants, members of the body politic, or persons with a ‘usual residence’ in the United States.”

In an Oct. 20 letter submitted to Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, among other points, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ general counsel argued that excluding noncitizens from the apportionment count "is effectively to deny they are ‘persons’.” The letter said that this “denial of personhood recalls the ‘overtly sinful and gravely unjust’ Three-fifths Compromise.”

The Three-fifths Compromise was the political deal reached at the 1787 U.S. Constitutional Convention that held the nascent Union together. It set a formula for apportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, which is determined by each state’s population: free persons, including free Black people, counted fully, and “all other persons” (the enslaved population) counted as three-fifths.

Several legal scholars and other experts strongly disagreed with the bishops’ comparison.

Historian Susan Hanssen of the University of Dallas told EWTN News she thinks the bishops’ reference to the Three-fifths Compromise is “an egregious mis-reading of American history.”

“That compromise did not aim at the denial of the personhood of slaves,” she argued, pointing to the compromiseʼs text, which consistently calls both free and enslaved people “persons.”

She said the compromise was intended to mitigate “the power of the slave-owning states in the national government, refusing to award them greater political weight based on subjugated populations without a voice or vote.”

Hanssen said the Census Bureau’s aims regarding the proposed changes are similarly aimed at mitigating political power, arguing that the bureau is refusing “to grant political clout to states that allow a larger number of undocumented illegal workers to be used for labor without the protection of the law.”

David Upham, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Dallas whose work focuses heavily on the 14th Amendment — which established citizenship rights, including the rights to due process and equal protection under the law, particularly for recently freed slaves — told EWTN News that the proposed rule changes do not mean noncitizens are not persons. He called the bishops’ interpretation of persons an “overstatement.”

“If that’s the case, every human being not being counted in the census is not a person,” he said, noting that the principal purpose of the census is to count people in order to determine the allocation of political power in the U.S. House of Representatives, whose members are supposed to be selected by the citizens.

“The question really is, besides bona fide citizens, what other human beings within the state’s border are counted as members of the people,” he said, and noted the president has the constitutional authority to address the question.

“The executive branch has substantial authority to determine whether an individual who isn’t a citizen” should be counted in the census for the purpose of political representation, he said.

“I think the danger the Trump administration is seeking to redress is that those states most enthusiastic about encouraging unlawful migrants will, as result of their disinterest in enforcing federal law, receive more votes in Congress and the electoral college,” he said.

Harvard Law School constitutional law professor Adrian Vermeule also weighed in, writing on X: “The analogy to slavery is utterly absurd unless the USCCB believes that all distinctions based on citizenship are unjust.”

“With all due respect, ‘personhood’ is not a magical trump card that overrides the basic principles of the republican form of government,” he wrote. “One cannot conclude from the bare fact of personhood that anyone and everyone has a right to be counted in the census, to vote, or to stand for office.”

“Why exactly should noncitizens with no status be counted for the apportionment of seats in the representative body?” he asked. He suggested the bishops’ public comment “really should be withdrawn” and added that he hopes “cooler heads prevail.”

Scholars at various major think tanks were also quick to take aim at the bishops’ personhood argument.

Mike Fragoso, a scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture program, called the bishops “unserious,” while Jay Richards, vice president of social and domestic policy and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, called the bishops’ position “absurd.”

Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told EWTN News that “our inherent recognition as persons — personhood — does not come from the governmentʼs census as to who is in the country.”

“As Catholics, we believe that unborn children are people,” he continued, “but the bishops do not extend their logic to demand that the unborn be counted in the census notwithstanding the fact that a killing that results in the death of a pregnant mother is, in many places, considered to be two murders. Why not?”

The proposed rule changes, published Sept. 10, are open to public comment until Nov. 2. The U.S. bishops did not respond to requests for comment on the backlash.

In a video released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Portland, Oregon, Archbishop Alexander Sample suggested Catholics should think of themselves as “disciples of Jesus first, Americans second … and, if you’re going to belong to a political party, that is third.”

“Start with your relationship with Jesus. Start with your faith,” the archbishop said. “And then see how that shapes your view on social and political issues.”

The archbishop’s video comes just days before the 2026 U.S. midterms, which could serve as a sharp referendum on U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, particularly his administration’s launching of a war with Iran, which brought with it major increases in fuel costs and other prices.

Multiple U.S. bishops have urged the faithful to pray ahead of the elections, including regarding major ballot initiatives involving abortion and other issues.

In his Oct. 26 video, Sample — who serves as the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ religious liberty committee — noted that “none of the political parties” in the U.S. “embody all the Catholic social teaching.”

“We don’t start with our party’s political platform,” he said. “We start with Catholic social teaching — the Catholic social doctrine of the Church, and all of those principles of Catholic social teaching.”

Conscience ‘tells us to pursue the good’

In a related video also released on Oct. 26, Baltimore Archbishop William Lori — who previously served as vice president of the USCCB — said the “importance of a properly formed conscience cannot be overstated.”

The archbishop described conscience as “that part of us that tells us to pursue the good and to avoid evil,” a place where “God speaks to us and his word echoes in our hearts.”

“It is vital that in this time when there is so much back-and-forth politically, when the news cycles never cease, when life is moving along rapidly — that in the exercise of our citizenship, we would slow down and engage in discernment.”

The prelate pointed to St. Paul’s admonishment to “cling to what is good.” He described faithful citizenship as “an invitation to know what the Church teaches and then, when you’re faced with ballot issues or the question of for whom to vote, you’re equipped to engage in prayerful discernment.”

He noted that the U.S. bishops issue messages about voting periodically. “[We] have a lot of faith in our people,” he said.

The question of faithful citizenship was “never meant to be simply a list of dos and don’ts, or ‘vote this way or vote that way,’” Lori said. “It’s not a voter guide.” Rather, the principle “strives to present a beautiful vision of the United States as the best version of itself.”

Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky, meanwhile, in a separate video urged Catholics to keep the “desire to be the best disciple of Jesus Christ” at the center of all their decisions.

“We participate in public life and in political life to advance the common good, and to also remind everyone in public life and in politics that the common good and the human dignity of each and every person are paramount,” he said.

Some analysts are predicting a major Democratic victory in the 2026 midterms, particularly amid low approval ratings for Trump halfway through his second term.

As of Oct. 29 the forecast and election-tracking outlet Decision Desk HQ was predicting likely Democratic victories in both the U.S. House and Senate, including an 80% probability of victory in the House.

“I am deeply grateful to the skilled and compassionate medical professionals who are guiding my care and preparing my treatment plan,” Tobin said in an Oct. 28 statement, one day before the surgery.

“Above all, I place my complete trust in Christ our Redeemer, whose loving presence sustains me in all things,” Tobin said. “I humbly ask for your prayers and support during this time. God willing, I look forward to resuming my full duties within a few weeks after surgery.”

According to the archdiocese, doctors discovered a mass in one of the cardinal’s kidneys and he will undergo surgery to remove it. The announcement states doctors believe the mass is confined to the kidney and are optimistic about his outlook.

The news release states the doctor’s examination of the mass after the surgery will determine its nature and guide the cardinalʼs treatment moving forward.

The archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.