“Iron Mike,” as Ditka was known, had a famously explosive temper, which often boiled over on the sidelines and in postgame press conferences. Ditka, who led the Bears to a Super Bowl XX victory in 1986, once broke his right hand after punching a hard object over frustration with the play of a rookie offensive lineman — then, before the next game, told his team to “win this one for Lefty.”

Less well known was Ditka’s commitment to his Catholic faith, for which he credited his convert mother and the nuns of his parochial school in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, where he was raised.

“Growing up, the most important thing was the sacraments with my family,” Ditka told an interviewer with the Catholic website “One Peter Five” in August 2018. “We loved everything about the faith. Going to Catholic school and learning the faith, I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

“I don’t care how many times I got hit by a nun,” Ditka said, “it was good for me.”

Football success

Born Michael Dyczko in 1939, Ditka was the son of a non-churchgoing Ukrainian and Polish steelworker father and an Irish and German mother who converted to Catholicism.

He played tight end for the University of Pittsburgh and then in the NFL for the Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles, and Dallas Cowboys. In 1988 Ditka was honored as the first tight end ever to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

After retiring from playing, Ditka served as an assistant coach before getting his unlikely chance as the head coach of the Bears in 1982.

His 1985 Bears went 15-1 during the regular season and stomped their way through the playoffs to a Super Bowl victory. So confident were the players of that dominant team that they recorded a rap song called “The Super Bowl Shuffle” during the regular season. (Ditka later said he didn’t know about it, but he didn’t criticize the players for doing it.)

Ditka’s success, toughness, temper, and sense of humor made him a cultural phenomenon, inspiring a recurring skit (and guest appearances) on “Saturday Night Live” and launching a career as a motivational speaker.

When the team’s fortunes plummeted, he was fired in 1992. He later coached the New Orleans Saints but was fired after three years.

Off-field philanthropy

Ditka made millions as a pitchman for dozens of products after he left football, and he used some of that wealth to help others.

“Ditka was very supportive of Misericordia and other charities that supported children with special needs and disabilities,” Mary FioRito, an attorney, lifelong Chicagoan, and Cardinal Francis George Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News.

And not just with checks.

“He spoke at fundraisers, and surprised observers could catch him privately visiting with residents he knew by name,” reported the suburban Chicago Daily Herald.

Ditka was also a member of the Knights of Columbus and participated in the organization’s charitable activities.

‘Constant turmoil’

In his 1986 autobiography “Ditka,” published at the peak of his success, Ditka admitted to having had “no spiritual life at all” during the 1970s, before two other coaches got him involved in a Bible study that reintroduced him to God.

“I always had faith, but I never had understanding,” Ditka said. “I always knew what was going on in life. I was raised right. I did all the things you were supposed to do. But I never understood why I was supposed to do them, because I never had a total understanding of what was going on.”

He also acknowledged what he called “constant turmoil inside,” and he compared himself unfavorably to longtime Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry (1924–2000), whom he admired for always keeping his cool on the sidelines and for his involvement in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

“My priorities can get mixed up. I don’t think he ever gets his priorities mixed up,” Ditka said in the book.

Ditka said he discovered that following his faith was hard work.

“Sometimes you take for granted that your faith will always be there and everything will be fine. But without making the effort, that’s just not a fact. You have to make a real effort to live your faith daily,” Ditka said in the book.

“Nobody is going to do it every day. Nobody is going to do it perfectly,” he continued. “But unless you make the effort you’ve got no chance at all.”

Ditka married in 1961, got divorced in 1973, and then remarried in 1977. Both wives survive him, as do his four children, according to an obituary in the Daily Herald.

“I’m far from perfect now, and I’m never going to be perfect,” Ditka said in his autobiography. “When I die, I’m going to be still trying to get better than I am.”

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

The report, released more than three months after the June 30 deadline, said the spread of industrial-scale online scam operations “pose a direct threat to US national security.”

Transnational crime organizations, mostly run by Chinese nationals and long based in Southeast Asia, have moved into Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America, destabilizing local communities and cheating people out of billions of dollars each year, according to the report.

Fraudulent online romance, gambling, and cryptocurrency schemes have defrauded people in more than 125 countries, with Americans, the primary targets, losing at least $18.2 billion in 2025 to compounds operating out of Southeast Asia, according to the report.

The organizations recruited people from at least 80 countries over the past few years through fraudulent schemes, often pushing them into forced labor and holding them in guarded compounds and manipulating them through violence, sexual exploitation, intimidation, and other acts. They are often coerced into committing crimes, the report found.

The report, an annual assessment required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000, covers April 1, 2025, through March 31.

The State Department said it relied on information from embassy reporting, government officials, nongovernmental and international organizations, published reports, news articles, and other sources.

The State Department said that governments that fail to punish traffickers and protect victims should be held accountable.

12 governments cited

Twelve governments are cited in the report for a “policy or pattern” of state-sponsored human trafficking: Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Russia, South Sudan, and Sudan. This designation covers “trafficking in government-funded programs, forced labor in government-affiliated medical services or other sectors, sexual slavery in government camps, or the employment or recruitment of child soldiers.”

Under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, the department listed 14 countries whose forces or state-backed militias recruited or used children in any capacity during hostilities, including as sex slaves: Afghanistan, Burma, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Iran, Nigeria, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Venezuela, and Yemen.

Among country rankings reported so far, Israel returned to Tier 1, the highest category, for the first time since 2021, after five years on Tier 2. The Republic of Congo was downgraded to Tier 3, the lowest, for failing to meet minimum standards and not making significant efforts. A Tier 3 listing can restrict certain U.S. assistance, including security assistance, the report said.

A Tier 1 ranking does not mean that a country has no human trafficking. Instead, according to the report, “a Tier 1 ranking indicates that a government has made efforts to address the problem … and met the TVPA’s minimum standards.”

Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, author of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, said in a statement on Oct. 8 that the report’s findings are “a stark reminder that modern-day slavery remains a global scourge — and that governments must be held accountable when they fail to protect vulnerable people.”

“Human trafficking is an assault on human dignity and freedom,” the congressman wrote. “The United States must continue to use every tool at its disposal — including the TIP Report — to expose human trafficking whenever it rears its ugly head, protect survivors, and press foreign governments to end this blight upon humanity.”

“China remains on Tier 3 — the lowest ranking,” Smith continued, “reflecting its continued failure to meet the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) use and enabling of forced labor — including the systematic exploitation of Uyghurs and other persecuted minorities — is deeply troubling and deserves the greatest level of scrutiny.”

“Moreover, the horrific, ongoing consequences of China’s one-child per couple policy can still be seen and felt today, as the Report notes that a gross disparity — tens of millions more boys than girls — has driven the demand for commercial sex trafficking and coercive marriages in the country,” Smith wrote.

“Governments on Tier 3 — including China, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Burma, Belarus, Cambodia, Cuba, Laos, Nicaragua, Sudan, South Sudan, and Venezuela — can and must do more. Tier 3 must never become a permanent designation; it should serve as a dire warning and a call to action,” Smith wrote.

“It is with shock and great sorrow that I have learned of the Department of War’s decision to publicly livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan,” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the USCCB, said in a statement on Oct. 9.

“Our God is the God of life,” he said. “In no way can Hasan’s actions be condoned but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.”

Coakley quoted Romans 12:17, which commands: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil.”

“The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people,” the archbishop said. “I pray for the intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel that we as a nation may always choose life even in the most trying times and circumstances.”

Hasan, a man from Arlington, Virginia, was convicted of murdering 13 people and injuring 32 others in a mass shooting at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2009, while working as a psychiatrist for the Army. Public witnesses said he screamed “Allahu Akbar” immediately before he began firing. He had email communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born al-Qaeda recruiter.

On Oct. 2, President Donald Trump approved a military execution via firing squad for Hasan, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Dec. 3 at Fort Hood. On Oct. 8, Hegseth said in an interview with the news outlet Real Americaʼs Voice that the execution will be livestreamed and later reaffirmed this plan on social media.

The announcement of the execution and livestream also faced criticism from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA. Archbishop Timothy Broglio reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s opposition to the death penalty in a statement to EWTN News.

“Catholic teaching about the death penalty is clear,” Broglio said. “Already the Catechism of the Catholic Church, even before its revision by the late Pope Francis, indicated that in a country such as the United States where the means exist to protect society from such criminals, the death penalty was inadmissible.”

The archbishop said that now, “the teaching is even clearer and more universal” and cited CCC 2267: “Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.”

Broglio added: “Even in the case of the most heinous crimes, the Church begs for clemency.”

‘A grotesque display of hatred’

The Catholic Mobilizing Network, which works closely with the USCCB on efforts to oppose the death penalty, condemned both the decision to execute Hasan and the decision to livestream his death.

“Beyond the fact that executions do not deter crime or increase safety, it’s appalling that a public official would try to introduce it as a livestream arcade,” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, said in a statement.

“It’s been almost a century since our country’s last public execution, and we must not fall into the abyss of such a vengeful practice,” she said. “We undermine our own humanity when we treat another person’s death as something to watch, celebrate, or use for entertainment. It is [reminiscent] of the horrors of lynching in our nation’s past, and would be a grotesque display of hatred witnessed in the public executions of some authoritarian countries today.”

Murphy quoted a Sept. 28 address from Pope Leo XIV, in which he said “the greatness of a civilization is not measured by its material achievements, but by the way it cares for, protects, and upholds the human person.”

She warned that “we violate human dignity” with every execution “because every person is created in the image of God.” She said “the Church instructs us to not seek cruel retribution, but a justice that holds people accountable without perpetuating the cycle of death.”

“What Mr. Hasan did at Fort Hood in 2009 ought not be condoned in any way,” she said. “He inflicted horrible pain and caused terrifying trauma. … But we must not be blinded by bloodlust. The macabre spectacle proposed by Secretary Hegseth is not what our Lord asks of us—it will neither honor victims nor bring healing.”

Walsh said in an Oct. 2 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin that Iowa City resident Fatou Traore has resided in that community for more than two decades and has been a legal resident since a 2011 withholding of removal order. A withholding of removal order bars deportation to a country where an immigration judge found the person would likely face persecution.

Davenport Letter

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested Traore on Sept. 24. The federal agency told the Cedar Rapids Gazette that she “admitted to using a fake birth certificate and fake passport” to enter the U.S.

Traore’s family has denied those allegations. Walsh, meanwhile, said in his letter that Traore “has raised her family [in Iowa], lived peacefully, and has no criminal history.”

Traore’s family has said the government is preparing to deport her to Sierra Leone, a country with which, Walsh said, “she has no connection and where violence and human rights violations remain serious concerns.”

The bishop said he was “deeply troubled” by the government’s actions, which he argued were proceeding “despite the absence of any lawful or humanitarian justification.”

“Proceeding with this deportation is [a] grave violation of [Traore’s] human dignity and the rights that are intrinsic to each one of us,” the bishop said. He urged the government to stay the deportation and allow Traore to return to her family.

Walsh in his entreaty joined several other religious and community leaders in Iowa in urging the government to hold off on the deportation. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is not the first time the leader of the Davenport Diocese had advocated on behalf of immigrants.

In 2020, then-Bishop Thomas Zinkula — now the Archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa — urged the government to release several Guatemalan immigrants from custody, citing the risks of COVID infection while in detainment.

Murua, a native of Peru who is director of digital strategy and social media for EWTN News, succeeds Montse Alvarado, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News since 2023, whom Pope Leo XIV appointed in June as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication. Alvarado takes up the Vatican post the same day.

A story that began with Mother Angelica

Murua’s path into journalism is linked to EWTN’s foundress. When Mother Angelica visited Peru, she gave a talk that Murua, then 20, covered for the then-fledgling ACI Prensa, EWTN Chairman of the Board and CEO Michael P. Warsaw told staff in a message announcing the appointment.

“Mother could not have known that one of the young women listening to her would someday help take that same message around the world and eventually be entrusted with leading one of the divisions of the apostolate she founded,” Warsaw wrote. “In many ways, it feels designed by Providence.”

Murua’s career in Catholic media spans more than 30 years and predates EWTN’s acquisition of ACI Prensa. At EWTN, she has held leadership roles across digital, editorial, and broadcast operations, including on the team of “EWTN Noticias,” the network’s flagship Spanish-language nightly newscast.

She played a central role in launching the network’s social media presence and has led digital coverage of three papal conclaves, multiple World Youth Days and jubilees, International Eucharistic Congresses, and Synods of Bishops.

“Ursula understands both the mission of EWTN and the rapidly changing ways people encounter news, faith, and one another,” Warsaw said in a statement. “She has helped shape the digital transformation of EWTN News from within while remaining deeply committed to the truth of the Gospel and the teachings of the Church.”

In a first comment on her appointment, Murua said: "I have had the extraordinary privilege of watching Catholic media transform from radio and broadcast to websites, social media and mobile platforms, and now confront the challenge and promise of artificial intelligence.”

“But the reason we do this work has never changed. People are hungry for truth, for meaning, and ultimately for Christ. Our responsibility is to understand where they are, how they are searching, and how we can faithfully meet them there.”

Speaking of her successor, Alvarado noted Murua, in her role as president of EWTN News, will “continue the work we began together, expanding EWTN News’ digital presence and developing new ways to reach audiences while strengthening our commitment to journalism rooted in fidelity to the Gospel.”

“I have watched Ursula devote particular attention to understanding audiences at every point in their journey of faith, from deeply engaged Catholics to people encountering the Church, or even the Gospel, for the first time. That audience-centered approach has shaped EWTN News' digital strategy and offers a powerful model for how digital missionary discipleship can be done well.”

From EWTN News to the Vatican

Alvarado joined EWTN in 2021 as host of “EWTN News In Depth.” As prefect, she will be the first woman who is not a religious sister to head a dicastery of the Holy See. She succeeds Paolo Ruffini, who has led the dicastery since 2018.

Her tenure brought a global overhaul of EWTN News. In January, EWTN brought Catholic News Agency and the ACI Group under a single EWTN News identity and launched EWTNNews.com. Spanish- and Portuguese-language versions of the site are due to launch next.

About EWTN

In its 46th year, EWTN is the largest Catholic media organization in the world. EWTN’s 11 global TV channels and numerous regional channels are broadcast in multiple languages 24 hours a day, seven days a week to over 435 million television households in more than 160 countries and territories. EWTN platforms also include radio services transmitted through SIRIUS/XM, iHeart Radio, and over 600 domestic and international AM & FM radio affiliates; a worldwide shortwave radio service; one of the most visited Catholic websites in the U.S.; as well as EWTN Publishing, its book publishing division.

About EWTN News

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., EWTN News is the global, multilingual news service of the EWTN Global Catholic Network. With language teams based in the United States, Peru, the Vatican, Kenya, Brazil, Germany, Italy, and Iraq, along with correspondents throughout the world, EWTN News delivers coverage in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, and Arabic, serving Catholic audiences worldwide on its new platform: ewtnnews.com. EWTN News operates leading digital and print platforms including ChurchPOP and the National Catholic Register, a nearly 100-year-old biweekly newspaper with a robust digital presence. It also produces television news programs such as “EWTN News Nightly,” “EWTN Noticias,” “EWTN News In Depth,” “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly,” “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” and “Vaticano.”

American bishops will meet for their fall plenary assembly from Nov. 16–19 in Baltimore, which will include the election of bishops to the positions. Each bishop will serve as bishop-elect for one year, before taking over the role at the end of the 2027 fall plenary assembly. They serve three-year terms.

The most senior office up for election is USCCB secretary, which also leads the Committee on Priorities and Planning. This bishop helps set conference-wide priorities for the bishops.

Two bishops were nominated for the role: Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, and Bishop Earl K. Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio. Rhoades holds the position because he was elected in 2025 to finish the term of Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, whose election to the USCCB presidency left a vacancy.

There are also two nominees for each of the committee chairs:

• The Committee on Catholic Education: Bishop James D. Conley, Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, and Bishop Edmund J. Whalen, auxiliary bishop, Archdiocese of New York
• The Committee on Communications: Bishop Daniel J. Felton, Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, and Bishop Louis Tylka, Diocese of Peoria, Illinois
• The Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church: Bishop Steven J. Maekawa, OP, Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska, and Bishop Michael M. Pham, Diocese of San Diego
• The Committee on Doctrine: Bishop William M. Joensen, Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, and Bishop Steven J. Lopes, Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter
• The Committee on National Collections: Bishop Mark A. Eckman, Diocese of Pittsburgh, and Bishop Gerald L. Vincke, Diocese of Salina, Kansas
• The Committee on Pro-Life Activities: Bishop John T. Folda, Diocese of Fargo, North Dakota, and Bishop Donald J. Hying, Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois earlier this year ruled in favor of multiple Catholic plaintiffs, including Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki and Chicago archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich, barring the state from requiring them to participate in the suicide regime there. Multiple groups of religious sisters have also been included in those protective orders.

The Thomas More Society, a legal group representing Paprocki and several others in their lawsuit, announced on Oct. 8 that “nearly every Catholic health care institution in Illinois” had been included in an expanded court order blocking the suicide law from being enforced.

Among the protected entities are the Catholic Medical Association, the Catholic Psychotherapy Association, and numerous Catholic healthcare affiliates in the Diocese of Springfield.

The order is temporary and will last only so long as the lawsuit against the state suicide law plays out, but Thomas More Society litigation head Peter Breen said in a news release that the law firm would “keep fighting until that protection is permanent.”

“Catholic and Christian health care providers, from hospitals and nursing homes to physicians, nurses, and therapists, strive to heal, not harm, and for generations, have cared for the sick and dying in keeping with their faith,” Breen said, arguing that the state has “no right or authority” to coerce them into helping patients kill themselves.

Narrow opt-out laws mean the Catholic care providers were not obligated to actively facilitate the specific act of suicide. But the state law still requires them to participate in the suicide regime in various other ways, including touting the alleged benefits of taking one’s own life.

Elsewhere in the U.S., Rockville Centre, New York, Bishop John Barres and a coalition of four communities of religious sisters won a victory in July when a U.S. district judge said the state would be barred from enforcing its new suicide law against the Catholic plaintiffs while their own federal suit played out.

Archbishop Christophe El-Kassis argued for an end to capital punishment during a meeting of the Third Committee on Oct. 7, saying the defense of human rights must be “consistent and universal, extending to every person, at every stage and in every circumstance.”

El-Kassis’ remarks come after Tennessee’s Sept. 30 botched execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike, who survived the administration of two syringes of lethal pentobarbital and is receiving medical treatment. A week later, Texas executed a man, marking the 30th execution carried out in the United States in 2026. Separately, President Donald Trump on Oct. 5 approved an execution by a military firing squad.

“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” El-Kassis said, quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “This God-given dignity is never forfeited, no matter the gravity of the crime. Advances in penal systems now allow states to protect society effectively without foreclosing the possibility of repentance and redemption.”

El-Kassis emphasized that “there is no recourse” if the death penalty is carried out against an innocent person.

“Conversely, the victims and their families are entitled to solidarity, support, and a justice that is prompt, impartial, and humane. However, the taking of another life cannot restore what has been lost,” he said. “The purpose of punishment is not vengeance, but rather to repair the social bond, protect the common good, and reintegrate the offender.”

He concluded by calling on states in the U.S. where the practice is legal to “consider establishing, without delay, a moratorium on executions as a step towards abolition,” commute existing sentences, ensure fair trials, and enhance rehabilitation efforts.

Drug trafficking

El-Kassis also spoke on the topic of drug trafficking addressing those gathered at the Third Committee meeting on “Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice” with a call to uphold the law for the protection of human dignity and rights of others.

“Renewed determination is required in the face of expanding drug markets and the links between drug trafficking, corruption, and criminal activity around the world,” he said during the Oct. 7 session. “Furthermore, organized criminal groups are exploiting technology and innovation to expand their reach and diversify their operations.”

Quoting Pope Leo XIV, El-Kassis highlighted that prevention against drug use and trafficking must be accompanied by education that begins within the family and continues in schools, “imparting accurate scientific knowledge of the ruinous effects of narcotics upon the brain, the body, personal conduct, and the common good of the community.”

“The Catholic Church will continue to contribute to the common good and the inalienable, God-given dignity of every human person,” he said.

Indigenous peoples

El-Kassis also spoke during a session of the Third Committee on the “Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

“Every human person is endowed with inherent dignity and equal rights. Indigenous peoples, with their unique histories, cultures, spiritualities, and ancestral bonds to the land, form an indispensable part of the human family,” he said. “Their rights must be respected, protected, and promoted as a matter of justice and of the common good.”

El-Kassis further emphasized that “Indigenous peoples are not objects of development policies, but subjects and protagonists of their own destinies.”

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the law in June 2025. The measure ordered that a “durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments” be hung in each Texas public elementary or secondary school classroom.

The law has been subject to legal challenges since its passage. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery blocked the law in August 2025, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld the law, finding that it does not violate the First Amendment.

In an amicus filing on Sept. 28, scholars with the Lindsay & Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic at the Notre Dame Law School urged the Supreme Court to take up the case, arguing that the high court can provide “urgently needed guidance” regarding the extent of the establishment clause in the First Amendment.

The Texas law “forces state-sponsored religious instruction on children” and “strikes at the heart of the Constitution’s protections” while going against Supreme Court precedent, the filing says.

The appeals court ruling “misstates the history underpinning the First Amendment, defies [Supreme Court] cases, and imperils religious freedom,” the brief argues.

The placement of the Ten Commandments per the state’s rule “guarantees” that students will be effectively coerced into religious instruction, it says.

The purpose of the law is to “teach government-approved religious truth,” the scholars say, in violation of the Constitution and U.S. precedent.

The Supreme Court has ruled on public displays of the Ten Commandments in multiple cases. In 2005 it held that a display at the Texas Capitol was constitutional, though in the same year it struck down Ten Commandments displays at multiple Kentucky courthouses.

In 2024, meanwhile, a federal judge blocked a Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed the ruling, finding that Supreme Court precedent left the constitutional question unresolved.

Poll chaplains, sometimes called peacekeepers, volunteer outside of polling locations to help provide nonpartisan election information to voters, seek to mediate tensions that arise, and peacefully intervene and document attempts to intimidate voters or infringe on voting rights.

Even though a poll chaplain is not an official Church or government position, Detroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger said during a virtual conference in late September that Catholics should be proactive in the democratic process, which includes the protection of voting rights with the help of nonpartisan poll watchers and poll chaplains.

We are in an especially fraught and significant moment in our nation’s history, with active, and, at times, successful attempts to gerrymander the vote or suppress turnout in areas that might not be favorable to a preferred candidate.”

Archbishop Edward Weisenburger

Archdiocese of Detroit

“We are in an especially fraught and significant moment in our nation’s history, with active, and, at times, successful attempts to gerrymander the vote or suppress turnout in areas that might not be favorable to a preferred candidate,” Weisenburger said.

“The Church is well within its theological mandate to be an instrument of activity, seeking out voters and registering them to vote, especially in areas that are being targeted for voter suppression or where tactics of intimidation might be used to discourage voting,” Weisenburger said at the Participation, Dignity, and Elections conference on Sept. 16.

“Inviting and training people to be nonpartisan poll watchers or poll chaplains, and to stand firm in the face of intimidation [is also part of that mandate],” the archbishop said.

The conference, organized by Catholics in Communion, included panels about voter support, electoral participation, political polarization, and the Church’s relationship to democracy, along with other subjects related to elections.

“Democracy can be a vehicle for Godʼs care for the human family, but it requires a state that understands its limitations and is not overreaching in its responsibility to create public good order,” Weisenburger said.

“It requires citizens and freely created associations and groups to recognize the responsibilities and duties that flow from freedom,” he said. “It requires a Church that is willing to boldly proclaim the Gospel and apply that Gospel to the task of building a just and thriving society.”

“May we all embrace that responsibility so that our Democratic Republic of the United States can be such an instrument of Godʼs care for us all,” the archbishop said.

Poll chaplains train for midterms

Various organizations have been recruiting and training people to serve as poll chaplains for the 2026 midterm elections. It is a role that has developed within faith communities in the past few election cycles.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, an evangelical preacher who directs Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice, told EWTN News that the center is part of the coalition Faiths United to Save Democracy (FUSD), which has trained more than 1,000 of numerous faith backgrounds to serve as poll chaplains for the November elections. The last scheduled training is on Oct. 15.

“This isn’t political or partisan for us,” he said. “It’s really theological.”

Wallis, who works to articulate the moral and theological framing for why poll chaplains go to voting locations, said the mission is rooted in Genesis 1:26, when God says, “Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness,” which expresses the inviolable dignity of every person.

“This foundational biblical teaching about the dignity of every human being made in the image of God is fundamental to all of our human rights, civil rights, and voting rights,” he said. “... To suppress a vote is to assault the image of God.”

Wallis said FUSD trains people of all faiths and participants include Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists. He said they have trained a “good mix” of laypeople and clergy, which include Catholic priests. Clergy are encouraged to wear religious garb.

Apart from the usual de-escalation training, Wallis expressed concerns about what he called “threats” from President Donald Trump’s administration to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and the National Guard to polling locations.

“Polling places have lots of people,” he said. “There’s partisan actors, there’s poll workers. The administration has suggested there be people monitoring elections. … [The chaplains are] a calming presence, they’re often a trusted presence and they’re there to intervene if necessary if intimidation occurs.”

One of the Catholic activist groups involved in recruiting poll chaplains is the Franciscan Action Network (FAN), which alone has recruited 321 volunteers, which include friars, sisters, and lay Franciscans, along with other lay Catholics and Christians.

Robert Christian, director of strategy for FAN, told EWTN News that poll chaplaincy is “deeply compatible with our mission and Franciscan values,” noting that the order is “known for their commitment to peace.”

“Free, fair, peaceful elections allow for the peaceful resolution of differences,” Christian said.

He said “every single person has dignity” and a “right to participate economically, socially, and politically.” Within FAN’s network, he said there’s strong care for “the integrity of elections” and volunteers “want to do their part to make sure everyone feels comfortable showing up on Election Day and [don’t] have to worry about their vote being counted or being turned away.”

Christian said the training focuses mostly on partisan tensions boiling over into the voting line or conflicts between poll workers and a voter. He also said talks about federal intervention, such as ICE agents stationed near voting locations, have caused people to be “nervous.”

“There have been growing concerns around democratic norms and people accepting the outcome of elections,” Christian said. “... It’s a pretty tense atmosphere in the lead-up to the elections.”

The 2026 midterm elections are less than one month away on Nov. 3. Every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection and there are 35 Senate elections. Many states have local elections and ballot referendums, and there are 36 gubernatorial elections.

This story was updated at 1:44 p.m. ET on Oct. 8, 2026, to clarify that the poll chaplain training is not conducted by Georgetown University’s Center on Faith and Justice but rather by Faiths United to Save Democracy (FUSD); the center is part of FUSD.

Mental Health Sunday is part of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops’ (USCCB) National Catholic Mental Health Campaign, a year-round initiative of the U.S. bishops that encourages the faithful to respond and bring awareness to the growing mental health crisis in the country.

While the campaign is a year-round initiative, a special emphasis is placed on the issue Oct. 10–18. During that week, the Novena for Mental Health is prayed. The novena begins on World Mental Health Day (Oct. 10), includes Mental Health Sunday — which takes place on the Sunday that falls within the time frame of the Novena for Mental Health — and ends on the feast of St. Luke (Oct. 18), the patron saint of healthcare.

The novena includes themes related to mental health to reflect on and uses a pray, learn, act structure, which means that each day includes a prayer, a section where participants can learn about mental health issues and about those suffering, and a call to action where participants are encouraged to get involved or do more to spread awareness.

The petitions in the novena include praying for the removal of stigma, the mental health ministry, families, youth and young adults, childhood, the effects of racial discrimination, poverty, suicide awareness, and grief.

In preparation for Mental Health Sunday, parishes and dioceses are being encouraged to launch a mental health resource or provide resources in the narthex after Masses, take part in the novena as a parish community, invite parishioners to bring their petitions about mental health issues to pray as a community, include mental health issues during the Prayer of the Faithful at all Masses, or offer a blessing for those who work in mental health ministries.

The Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, is answering this call through the launch of its Mental Health Ministry, which will be introduced to the diocesan community on Oct. 10. Bishop Earl Fernandes will celebrate Mass at the St. Joseph Cathedral in Columbus and will recognize individuals with mental health challenges, caregivers, and mental health professionals.

Pope Leo XIV also called upon the faithful to join in prayer during the month of October for mental health ministry.

“Melancholy, bad character, confusion of senses — today, we understand that behind these old labels lies a deep, silent suffering not only of those affected by mental disorders but also of their loved ones and their communities,” Pope Leo said in a video released Oct. 1 on X.

He added: “We live in a world full of tensions, and even as solutions grow so does the number of people in crisis. This October, let us pray for the mental health ministry — an urgent and ever-more-needed service in our Church and in the world.”

In the full video shared on the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network website, Pope Leo recited an original prayer written specifically for this month’s prayer intention. The prayer can be found here.

The Cornell Catholic Community, led by Associate Director Deacon Matthew Hall and priest-chaplains Father Daniel McMullin and Father David Cataline, said in an Oct. 7 statement that campus ministry is offering prayer, pastoral care, and support to students affected by sexual violence.

A former Cornell student’s civil lawsuit alleges fraternity members sexually assaulted her at the Ithaca, New York, campus, leading to scrutiny of Cornell’s disciplinary process. New York Attorney General Letitia James has opened a criminal investigation into the handling of allegations.

Salt, Leaven, and Light

The pastoral letter, “Salt, Leaven, and Light,” reflects on Catholic teaching concerning marriage and sexuality, the theology of the body, the principles of Catholic moral reasoning, the relationship between freedom and authority, and the vocation of Christians to contribute to the moral life of the communities in which they live and work, the statement said.

“We are not called to retreat from difficult conversations because our neighbors do not yet speak the language of Catholic theology,” the pastoral letter said. “Much less are we permitted to stand aloof, as if their plight were not our problem. We are called to help our neighbors see more clearly what they may already see in shadow: that human beings are endowed with an infinite dignity; that sex is sacred; that our choices have real moral meaning; that some things are objectively good and some objectively evil; and that freedom is not simply the power to choose whatever we want, but the capacity to choose what is truly good.”

The letter further offers students nine suggestions for “Seasoning, Leavening, and Enlightening Cornell” amid the ongoing scandal, including prayer before speaking, knowing the Church’s teachings on sexual ethics and consent, rejecting relativism, using personal influence for good, and entering the public square only “when you have something true and charitable to say.”

“Prelims are upon you. The last thing you need is national news cameras filming B-roll as you try to go about your day. Nor do you need 29 paragraphs of extra reading,” the letter said.

“For some of you, the events of these weeks will cause particular bitterness, anxiety, and sadness, as they bring to mind your own experiences of sexual violence, accusations, sins, and other painful experiences. We know too well what it means to call this life a ‘vale of tears.’ But God ‘comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction.’ (2 Cor 1:4) Let us bear gently and kindly with one another. Please know of my prayers for you,” the letter said.

Hall said in an email sharing the pastoral letter: “We must enter the discourse as Christians: prayerfully, thoughtfully, charitably, and with confidence that the Catholic faith has something true and beautiful to say to the whole world.”

“We do not want our Catholic students to retreat from difficult conversations,” Hall said. “We want our students to have the intellectual and spiritual resources to enter those conversations charitably and courageously. We need to be able to affirm what is true, recognize human dignity, and help one another pursue what is genuinely good.”

On Oct. 9, the memorial of St. John Henry Newman, patron of Catholic communities at secular universities, the Cornell Catholic Community will observe a day of prayer, the statement said.

“My hope is that this library will help the students of Benedictine College defend the American project today,” Barrett said during her remarks, according to a Sept. 28 press release. “And I hope that it will bring them together to discuss new ideas, forge friendships and, importantly, learn to disagree respectfully. In a time of hyper-polarization, many have limited interactions with those whose beliefs they do not like. But citizens must learn to disagree about ideas without making enemies of the people who hold them. The success of the American project depends on it.”

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, also delivered remarks. “We change the world one soul at a time, and one citizen at a time,” he said. “It happens here every day at Benedictine College … If we could judge the world and its future by what happens here at this college, we can have a very warm spot in our heart and a very bright sense of hope.”

Other speakers at the event included the college’s president, Stephen Minnis; Michael Kuckelman, chairman of the board of directors; Kimberly Shankman, dean and provost of the college; recent alumni Jeffery Schremmer and Arturo Hernandez; and Abbot James Albers of St. Benedict Abbey, who led prayers.

Chicago Archdiocese urges Illinois to join federal education tax credit program

The Archdiocese of Chicago is calling on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to opt the state in to a new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit program that could bring up to $2 billion in additional education funding to Illinois schools.

“Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Treasury released draft guidelines for the Education Freedom Tax Credit program. They offer a clear opportunity for Illinois to join the program and open the door to much-needed education funding for all schools in the state,” the archdiocese said in an Oct. 2 press release.

Under the program, individuals could receive a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit of up to $1,700, while couples filing jointly could receive up to $3,400, for donations to recognized scholarship-granting organizations. The program would not require state or local funding or taxes.

Most of the funding generated through the program would support public school students, while some could provide scholarships for students attending Catholic and other nonpublic schools, according to the archdiocese. The funding also could support tutoring, education technology, school supplies, and transportation.

“If our state does not opt-in, polls indicate that up to $1 billion in Illinois donations would flow to other states, funding that could benefit our own students. It is imperative that Gov. Pritzker opt Illinois into the program to help secure this new funding source for our state’s students,” the archdiocese said.

Bishop David M. O’Connell, CM, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Catholic Education, similarly called the federal scholarship tax credit “a transformative opportunity for children across the country” in an Oct. 2 statement.

Australian Catholic school system to cut ties with religious order after abuse scandal

The Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia is considering severing the national network of Catholic schools’ connection with the Christian Brothers after a fallout over the compensation of sexual abuse victims.

Edmund Rice is seeking to part ways with the order that runs the 61 schools in its network as the relationship between the organization and the religious order have “become strained,” according to an ABC News report.

The move comes after the Christian Brothers attempted to avoid paying sex abuse survivor claims by transferring over $50 million worth of property assets to Edmund Rice over a decade in symbolic $1 dollar transfers.

His death was confirmed in a news release by current Bishop Emilio Biosca Agüero, OFM Cap, who was appointed to that role in May.

“It is with profound sadness, yet with faith in the promise of the Resurrection, that I announce the passing of the Most Reverend Frank J. Dewane, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Venice in Florida,” Agüero said.

Dewane died at 3 a.m. at Sarasota Memorial Hospital “surrounded by close family and friends,” the prelate said. A cause of death was not immediately given.

Born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on March 9, 1950, Dewane was ordained in that diocese on July 16, 1988. Prior to his ordination he worked for NBC in Moscow and also worked at a subsidiary for Pepsi in New York.

Among his roles prior to his consecration as bishop, Dewane served as a member of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York and as the undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

He was named a coadjutor bishop of the Venice Diocese in 2006 by then-Pope Benedict XVI and was ultimately installed as bishop there on Jan. 19, 2007. He retired from that role on May 13 after nearly 20 years of service there.

Among his other roles in the U.S. Church were chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ domestic justice committee as well as on the bishops’ ad hoc Committee Against Racism.

Near the end of his tenure, in 2025, he spoke out against what he described as the “corrosive” rhetoric of U.S. federal officials who were intending to build a detention facility in the Everglades meant to house immigrants in the country illegally.

“Decency requires that we remember individuals being detained are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of distressed relatives,” the bishop said at the time.

Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis, the Holy See’s apostolic nuncio to the U.N., called for “true equality” for women, and for global economic and technological advances to prioritize the human person and the common good during remarks delivered at the Oct. 6 session.

El-Kassis, who was appointed to the position in July, spoke during the U.N.’s Third Committee, which focuses on social, humanitarian, and cultural issues, as well as the Second Committee, which focuses on economic and financial issues.

Drawing from Pope Leo XIV’s statement that “development is truly human when it places people at the center instead of the accumulation of wealth,” El-Kassis noted that eradicating poverty must come with the development of a system that does not treat the poor “merely as passive recipients of assistance.”

“Instead, they should be active participants and protagonists in the measures and programs designed to help them in their own lives,” he said. “To achieve the objectives of poverty eradication, full employment and decent work, and social integration, as set out in Copenhagen and reaffirmed in Doha, will require sustained cooperation, creativity and a renewed commitment to a political, economic, ethical and spiritual vision for social development based on human dignity.”

During another session on sustainable development and global economic change, El-Kassis called for the world’s economy to embrace “fairer and more inclusive international financial architecture.”

“The circumstances of a person’s birth should not determine the respect for one’s inherent God-given dignity or the opportunities an individual is able to access,” he said. “Similarly, the economic circumstances of a country should not limit its ability to meaningfully participate decisions that shape its development.”

El-Kassis similarly quoted Leo’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas when speaking about women and emphasized that “equality for women cannot be achieved as long as violence against women remains widespread.” The Holy See’s U.N. representative further decried human trafficking and said other technological and medical developments have enabled forms of exploitation, including surrogacy.

The Holy See reiterated its opposition to surrogacy, arguing that it treats gestation as “a negotiable service,” which violates the dignity of both the child and the mother.

“Decades ago, I joined FOCUS at Curtis Martin’s invitation to support the important work of missionary formation. That invitation changed my life in ways I never could have imagined,” Reyes said in a press release. “Over the years, I have watched God use this apostolate to transform thousands of lives on college campuses and in parishes. That fruit is a sign of God’s blessing and a testimony to the faithful leaders and missionaries who have given themselves completely to the Great Commission. It is a privilege to serve alongside them, and I pray God will continue to bless FOCUS for generations to come.”

Curtis Martin, who founded FOCUS in 1998, announced on Dec. 13, 2025, that he would be stepping down from his role as CEO. He said he would continue to serve the student ministry group as its founder and as a board member.

“I have been blessed to know Jonathan for more than 25 years,” Martin said. “Jonathan has extensive leadership experience working with the Church and a deep desire to help others encounter Jesus Christ. Please join me in praying for Jonathan as he helps lead FOCUS and carries this mission forward.”

Reyes has devoted his career to the Catholic Church and returns to FOCUS after previously serving as the organization’s vice president of ministry and formation, where he helped shape the formation of missionaries who accompany college students.

His most recent position was that of senior vice president of communications for the Knights of Columbus. Before joining the Knights, Reyes served the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB), first as the executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development and later as the assistant general secretary for Integral Human Development.

In 2005, Reyes co-founded and served as the first president of the Augustine Institute, which is a private Catholic graduate school of theology. In 2011, he founded Christ in the City, a nonprofit and missionary formation program that focuses on street outreach to homeless individuals. He also previously taught history at Christendom College.

Archbishop Paul Coakley of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and president of the USCCB told EWTN News: “I welcome with great joy the appointment of Jonathan Reyes, Ph.D., as the new CEO of FOCUS. The friendship Jonathan shares with Curtis Martin gives this transition a special continuity.”

“Jonathan’s experience in various apostolates, most recently the world’s largest fraternal organization, the Knights of Columbus, has prepared him well to lead in this moment,” he added. “My brother bishops and I rely deeply upon lay movements such as FOCUS to help bring the Great Commission to fruition in every generation. May the Lord bless Jonathan and the entire FOCUS family as they continue forming missionary disciples for Christ and his Church.”

Monsignor James Shea, president of the University of Mary in North Dakota, told EWTN News: “Jonathan Reyes is an exemplary choice to lead FOCUS into its next chapter. He was there early on, understands the charism from the inside, and shares deeply in the vision that has animated Curtis Martin’s remarkable work from the start. I have been so grateful for his wisdom and friendship as a trustee of the University of Mary, where I have seen firsthand his rare combination of intellectual depth, apostolic zeal, sound judgment, and genuine humility.”

“Jonathan is a man of the Church, a gifted leader, and, above all, a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ,” he added. “He understands that the great strength of FOCUS has always been its capacity to awaken in young people a love for Christ and a desire to share that love with others. He will lead this extraordinary apostolate into a new season of growth and fruitfulness.”

Mother Mary Concepta, the superior general of the Sisters of Life, told EWTN News: “We have been privileged to collaborate with FOCUS for many years and are deeply grateful for their leadership and dynamic ministry of evangelization in the Church. We congratulate Jonathan Reyes in this new entrustment! We are praying for him and all of FOCUS as they continue this important work of leading young people to an encounter with Christ.”

“I’ve known and admired Jonathan Reyes for many years, both as a lay leader and a friend,” said Archbishop Emeritus Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia. “He’s a man of exceptional Christian character, intellect, apostolic energy, and professional skill. He knows the founder’s vision and the wonderful FOCUS staff and missionaries from long personal experience, and he’ll build on that to make the work of FOCUS even more fruitful in the years ahead. The FOCUS Board made exactly the right choice in a next-generation leader.”

Reyes succeeds interim CEO Tim Thoman, who has led FOCUS during the board’s national search since December 2025.

This story was updated at 4:01 p.m. ET on Oct. 7, 2026, with the statement from Mother Mary Concepta.

Here are seven common myths and facts about this popular devotion and  prayer:

1. Only Catholics can pray the rosary.

False. While rosaries are typically associated with Catholics, non-Catholics can certainly pray the rosary — and in fact, many credit it to their conversion. Even some Protestants recognize the rosary as a valid form of prayer.

2. Praying the rosary is idolatry.

False. Some have objections to the rosary, claiming it idolizes Mary and is overly repetitive.

Just like any practice, the rosary can be abused — just as someone might idolize a particular pastor or priest, a form of worship, or fasting. But the rosary itself is not a form of idolatry.

The rosary is not a prayer to Mary — it is a meditation on the life of Christ revealed in five mysteries “with the purposes of drawing the person praying deeper into reflecting on Christ’s joys, sacrifices, sufferings, and the glorious miracles of his life.”

When we pray the Hail Mary, we are not adoring Mary; we are asking for her intercession — just as we might ask a friend or family member to pray for us.

Second, any prayer can lose its meaning if we do not intentionally meditate on it. Focusing on the mysteries with purpose and intention is key to the rosary’s transforming power. As one author encourages: “The rosary itself stays the same, but we do not.”

3. You can wear a rosary as a necklace.

It depends. It is typically considered disrespectful and irreverent to wear a rosary around one’s neck as jewelry, even though the Church does not have an explicit declaration against doing so.

However, Canon 1171 of the Code of Canon Law says that “sacred objects, set aside for divine worship by dedication or blessing, are to be treated with reverence. They are not to be made over to secular or inappropriate use, even though they may belong to private persons.”

It is important to treat the rosary with respect and intention. If you intend to wear the rosary as a piece of jewelry, this would not be respectful and should be avoided. It goes without saying that wearing the rosary as a mockery or gang symbol would be a sin.

But if it is your intention to use the rosary and be mindful of prayer, then it could be permissible. It is not uncommon in some cultures, like in Honduras and El Salvador, to see the rosary respectfully worn around the neck as a sign of devotion.

Rosary rings or bracelets might be a better option if you want to keep your rosary close at hand as a reminder to pray, as they are kept more out of sight and would not be as easily misconstrued to be a piece of jewelry.

4. The rosary is an extremist symbol.

False. Back in 2022, a widely-shared Atlantic article went viral for accusing the rosary of being an “extremist symbol.”

“Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or ‘rad trad’) Catholics,” the article read.

The author also cited the Church’s stance on traditional marriage and the sanctity of life as evidence of “extremism” and claimed that Catholics’ tendency to call the rosary a “weapon in the fight against evil” as dangerous.

As EWTN News reported in 2022, popes have urged Catholics to pray the rosary since 1571 — often referring to the rosary as a prayer “weapon” and most powerful spiritual tool.

5. The rosary is not biblical.

Untrue! Most of its words come directly from Scripture.

First, the Our Father is prayed. The words of the Our Father are those Christ taught his disciples to pray in Matthew 6:9–13.

The Hail Mary also comes straight from the Bible. The first part, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” comes from Luke 1:28, and the second, “Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,” is found in Luke 1:42.

Finally, each of the decades prayed on the rosary symbolizes an event in the lives of Jesus and his mother. The decades are divided into four sets of mysteries: joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious, the majority of which are found in Scripture.

6. A rosary bead, or pea, can kill you.

Somewhat true. A rosary pea, or abrus seed, is a vine plant native to India and parts of Asia. The seeds of the vine, which are red with black spots, are often used to make beaded jewelry — including rosaries. Rosary pea seeds contain a toxic substance called “abrin,” which is a naturally-occurring poison that can be fatal if ingested. However, it’s unlikely for someone to get abrin poisoning just from holding a rosary made from abrus seeds, as one would have to swallow them.

Today, most rosaries are made from other nontoxic materials, such as olive wood or glass — eliminating this concern.

7. The rosary can help protect you.

True. Praying the rosary has proven to be a miraculous force for protecting those of faith and bestowing upon them extra graces, such as the victory of the Christian forces at the Battle of Lepanto after St. Pius V implored Western Christians to pray the rosary.

Many great saints across history, including Pope John Paul II, Padre Pio, and Lucia of Fátima, have also recognized the rosary as the most powerful weapon in fighting the real spiritual battles we face in the world.

We know that spiritual warfare is a real and present danger: “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens” (Eph 6:11–12).

“The rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin … If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors,” Pope Pius XI said.

This story was first published on Oct. 1, 2022, and has been updated.

In a statement issued Oct. 2, the Tennessee Catholic Conference argued that life imprisonment without parole “serves justice, protects society, and respects the dignity of every human life.”

“Accountability for grave wrongdoing is necessary, but it does not require the taking of another life,” they wrote. “An execution cannot restore the life taken, and the uncertainty, prolonged proceedings, and suffering surrounding the death penalty can deepen the anguish of everyone involved, including victims’ families, prisoners’ families, and those charged with carrying out executions.”

The bishops’ letter comes after the state’s recent failed attempt to execute the first woman in over 200 years, 50-year-old Christa Pike.

After two doses of pentobarbital failed to kill Pike on Sept. 30, the execution was halted. She remains on a ventilator in critical condition.

The botched execution was the second for Tennessee this year and led to the resignation of Frank Strada, the commissioner of the Department of Corrections. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee placed a moratorium on executions for the rest of 2026.

In 1995, Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured and then murdered Colleen Slemmer, Pike crushing her skull with a piece of asphalt. Sentenced to death in 1996 at the age of 20, Pike later attempted to strangle a fellow prisoner, Patricia Jones, in 2001. Pike, convicted of attempted murder, also tried to escape in 2012, according to ABC News.

“The fundamental moral question,” the bishops wrote, “is whether the State should continue to take lives when it has another means of protecting the public and imposing a serious, lasting punishment. Life without parole provides that alternative. It holds those convicted of the gravest crimes accountable and protects society while preserving the possibility of repentance.”

They wrote that “even those who commit terrible crimes retain their human dignity,” reflecting the Church’s revised stance on capital punishment.

Church teaching has changed on the death penalty

Paragraph 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, revised in 2018, states that the death penalty is no longer admissible because “the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes” and states should administer punishments that “do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.”

According to the catechism, “recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.”

However, Pope Francis argued in his “Address to Participants in the Meeting organized by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization” in 2017 that the “death penalty is an inhumane measure that, regardless of how it is carried out, abases human dignity.”

The catechism now states that “more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens,” and urges the Church to work for the abolition of the death penalty.

Trump approves military execution by firing squad

President Donald Trump meanwhile approved an execution by a military firing squad. 

On Oct. 5, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell reported on X that Trump approved the execution by military firing squad of “convicted terrorist” and “jihadist” Nidal Malik Hasan, the former U.S. Army major who shouted “Allahu Akbar” while murdering 13 people and wounding 32 others at Fort Hood, an army base in Texas, on Nov. 5, 2009.

Following a court martial, Hasan was sentenced to death in 2013. Parnell said the secretary of the Army will determine the date and location of the execution.

At FedEx’s annual meeting on Sept. 28, the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, sponsored a shareholder proposal asking the company to analyze the regulatory and reputational risks of continuing to ship the abortion pill mifepristone into states where abortion is illegal.

“Given its prevalence as one of the largest shipping services in the United States, we wanted to highlight the risk that FedEx may be posing for its shareholders if the Comstock Act is enforced and it continues to ship mifepristone, one of the key drugs used in the abortion pill regimen,” Bishop Michael Olson wrote in a letter to other Catholic bishops, asking them to vote for the proposal if their dioceses own shares in the company.

Olson told EWTN News he posted the letter on a bishops-only website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Citing the U.S. bishops’ Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines, he called the proposal “part of the process of exercising stewardship over” the diocese’s public equities and “an opportunity to further the culture of life.”

The proposal asked FedEx’s board to report within a year on how it oversees the legal, regulatory, and reputational risks of transporting mail-order abortion drugs. It did not ask the company to stop shipping the drug. The board opposed it. Final votes had not been tallied when the diocese spoke with EWTN News.

The issue stems from the Comstock Act and the Biden Justice Department’s interpretation of it. Passed by Congress in 1873, the law criminalized using the postal system to send obscene, lewd, or indecent materials; information or devices related to contraception; and items or information intended to induce abortion.

More than 20 states restrict or prohibit abortion-inducing drugs within their borders. In December 2022, the Department of Justice under the Biden administration issued a memorandum opinion stating that the Comstock Act “does not prohibit the mailing of certain drugs that can be used to perform abortions where the sender lacks the intent that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully.”

The Food and Drug Administration, meanwhile, stopped enforcing its in-person dispensing rule for mifepristone in April 2021 for the rest of the COVID emergency, and in December of that same year said it would permanently drop that requirement, allowing the drug to be prescribed and shipped to a patient without an office visit.

“Nevertheless, the Comstock Act is still law and could be interpreted and enforced more vigorously by this or a future Administration,” Pia de Solenni, who presented the proposal on the diocese’s behalf, said in a letter that accompanied Olson’s.

In that letter, she told the bishops: “Your institution has a unique opportunity to leverage its ownership of FedEx to ask for a risk analysis that not only protects the value of the company but also disrupts the delivery of a drug regimen that harms women and destroys unborn human life.” She called the proposal a “unique opportunity to slow down the distribution” of abortion drugs.

Olson wrote that “Sadly, since the overturning of Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs decision in 2022, abortion rates in the United States have increased about 20%, due largely to the government’s decision to relax the rules around the distribution” of abortion drugs.

De Solenni, who has a doctorate in moral theology and is the former chancellor of the Diocese of Orange, California, is vice president of corporate engagement at IWP Capital, a for-profit firm that does screening, proxy voting, and corporate engagement for institutional investors, consultants, and asset managers.

She said the company “only does corporate engagement with a Christian understanding of human flourishing” based on the bishops’ Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines, first published in 1991, revised in 2003, and updated in 2021.

She told EWTN News that she spoke only for about three minutes during the 20-minute meeting and the company responded for about three minutes.

She said the diocese’s proposal was the only one to which the company responded. “It is challenging to get a proposal on a ballot in the first place,” she said. And once it is there, “it is very unusual for companies to respond to shareholders. They usually let proposals die.”

She called the effort a “moral victory.”

“If Christian institutional investors would show up, we would be changing these companies,” she said. “If we all voted our proxies, if these companies were hearing from us, they would have different leadership and would make different decisions.”

De Solenni said in a separate engagement with Costco, over whether its stores would carry the abortion pill, the first reason the company gave for not carrying it was that “they were unsure about the Comstock Act.”

“Our long-term strategy,” Olson said, is “responsible stockholding, keeping our investments clean and in line with the Gospel and the integrity of the Church’s teaching.”

He said that Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, was supportive of the proposal, which Olson said is “part of our whole strategy as a diocese to live by Rerum Novarum,” Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical published in 1891.

Whatever the final tally, he said the diocese would keep “continued vigilance, and the continued exercise of the prophetic voice in these areas that are overlooked and even taken for granted.” As an institutional investor, he said, the diocese is “very scrupulous about this” and tries to avoid “formal cooperation with evil, or even material cooperation with evil. We certainly check twice.”

On Sept. 30, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, joined by the attorneys general of Alabama and Arkansas, filed two lawsuits over abortion pills mailed into states that restrict abortion: one at the Supreme Court against shield laws in New York, California, and Massachusetts, and another against providers accused of shipping the drugs.

“This anniversary invites us to remember not only the founding of our nation but also the generations who have helped bring its ideals to life,” the letter, released on Oct. 5, Cabrini’s feast day, said, highlighting that “America’s immigrant heritage is an essential part of, and inseparable from, our national identity.”

Cabrini is the patron saint of immigrants and is the first American to be canonized.

The message, titled “A Pilgrim People, A Shared Hope,” is signed by Archbishop James Golka and Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodriguez of Denver, Bishop Stephen Berg of Pueblo, and Father Kyle Ingels, the diocesan administrator of Colorado Springs, as well as several other Christian leaders across denominations. The letter comes as the Trump administration’s deportation efforts across the country continue to stir controversy among Catholics, including in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, which filed a lawsuit Oct. 5 against local and federal officials for barring priests from ministering to Catholic immigrant detainees. 

“We remember with respect the Indigenous peoples who inhabited this land long before the nation’s founding, as well as those brought here through slavery and denied the freedom our nation proclaimed,” the letter said. “We also give thanks for generations of immigrants and refugees who arrived carrying their faith, cultures, hopes, and gifts.”

The letter underscored the contributions of immigrants across agriculture, business, science, medicine, technology, and more. “Here in Colorado, immigrants have worked in our mines and fields, taught in our schools, opened businesses, served in our hospitals, raised families and enriched our civic and religious life,” the letter said.

Addressing concerns about national sovereignty and border security, the Christian leaders affirmed “both a nation’s responsibility to protect its people and maintain an orderly immigration system and its duty to treat every person with justice and mercy.”

“Laws should serve the common good while respecting human dignity, protecting the vulnerable, preserving family unity and providing fair legal processes,” the letter said, concluding: “On this anniversary, we invite the faithful to remember the immigrant and refugee stories that have shaped their families and communities; to pray for those displaced from their homes; to support ministries that accompany newcomers; and to build friendships across differences of language, culture and nationality.”

The diocese had proposed a plan earlier in the year to pay more than $200 million into an abuse victims’ fund. A committee of survivors countered with a proposed payout of more than $300 million, which the diocese itself subsequently opposed.

Judge William Lafferty said in an Oct. 2 decision that the diocese had failed to demonstrate that it was undergoing a “substantial burden” on its religious rights in being required to adhere to federal bankruptcy proceedings.

The judge dismissed as “incorrect and impossible” a scenario suggested by the diocese that would result in what Lafferty described as an “apocalyptic forced sale of all churches in the Oakland Diocese” under the federal bankruptcy court.

Such a scheme, Lafferty said, “can never be compelled in the bankruptcy system.”

Lafferty also expressed concern that the diocese’s “liquidation analyses” are “structured in a manner that tilts the playing field” in favor of the diocese itself.

The federal judge admitted that the ruling was “not a happy result” for anyone involved in the trial, including for abuse victims, who he said have been “deeply … immersed” in the trial since 2023.

The diocese, meanwhile, “has prosecuted this case honorably and with great integrity,” he said.

The judge urged the diocese and abuse victims to operate with “continuing dialogue and relentless good faith.”

“There is no guarantee of success in such endeavors, but also no reason not to begin again,” he said.

In a statement after the ruling, Oakland Bishop Michael Barber, SJ, described the decision as “a setback,” but he said the diocese remains “committed to providing fair and equitable treatment” for abuse victims while “continuing our mission to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in service to the 500,000 faithful Catholics in our community.”

The diocese would “study the court’s decision,” Barber said, before deciding how to move forward.

The diocese was in the news earlier this year after a California man was awarded a massive $16 million in a civil abuse suit there.

The ruling — rare for U.S. diocesan abuse cases, where most settlements involve groups of abuse victims rather than individual plaintiffs — represented the first jury verdict reached under the 2019 California Child Victims Act, which opened up a three-year look-back window for abuse victims to bring civil suits.

The allegations brought by the John Doe in the Oakland case concerned Father Stephen Kiesle, a priest who has faced multiple abuse allegations dating from the 1970s. The victim said Kiesle abused him during that decade.

Africatown is a historic community located just north of Mobile, Alabama, founded by West African survivors of the Clotilda — the last known slave ship to illegally transport captive people to the United States. While Africatown is known for its major Baptist landmarks, the different denominations located in the area came together for an ecumenical event Sept. 22–24.

As part of the celebration leading up to the 100th anniversary — which will include a special Mass, music, food, and fellowship — the Archdiocese of Mobile hosted a tent revival in collaboration with all the churches of Africatown. The theme’s revival was “Be Made Whole.”

Father Victor Ingalls is the pastor of seven parishes in the Archdiocese of Mobile, a majority of which are historically Black Catholic churches, as well as one Hispanic church and another Native American church.

Ingalls explained in an interview with EWTN News that the Black Catholic community has a long tradition of holding revivals.

“Itʼs really like having a Lenten mission or Advent mission, but kind of infused with Black culture … and it takes the best of Black culture and fuses it with the best of Catholicism,” he said.

He pointed out that one of the staples of these revivals is that they have “always had an ecumenical flavor.”

After hosting a successful revival earlier in the year, several non-Catholic ministers, who are friends of Ingalls’, asked him when he was planning to host a revival in Mobile. He began to pray about it and met with those who suggested it to see what they could come up with. They suggested hosting it in Africatown seeing as Our Mother of Mercy Parish — located in Africatown — was coming up on its 100th anniversary.

Roughly 500 people of different denominations showed up for the tent revival in Africatown. In line with the theme, the first night’s talks focused on being made whole as an individual, the second night covered being made whole as a community, and the last evening discussed being made whole as the body of Christ.

Ingalls said he believes ecumenical events like this are important for the Church today because they are a response to Jesus’ prayer in John 17.

“I believe because of what Jesus Christ said, it is our disunity as Christians that keeps the world from believing,” Ingalls said. “Our disunity is a condemnation against ourselves. We condemn ourselves and we undercut our efforts to try to spread the Gospel by being a dysfunctional family.”

He added: “Thereʼs a reason why people donʼt take Christians seriously and itʼs because thereʼs 40,000 different flavors of us. Itʼs hard to take that seriously. It’s like, ‘Hey, come be a part of this.’ Theyʼre like, ‘Well, Iʼve already got enough drama and dysfunction and division in my life, why would I want to be part of that?’”

Ingalls said he hopes those who attended the tent revival took with them that “it does not matter your circumstance as an individual or as part of any organization or even the Church, you can be made whole by Jesus Christ.”

“Everyone loves to talk about how divided we are these days and how things are getting worse and people are so isolated and divided and depressed and anxious and we just addressed it and said, ‘Well, weʼre trying to look at all these problems, but thereʼs only one real solution and his name is Jesus Christ.’”

“It does not matter how messy your personal life is, it does not matter how messy your relationship with your family, your friends and your neighbors is … it is not beyond the reach of Jesus Christ,” Ingalls emphasized. “He can make you whole. He can make us whole. And just the fact that nearly 500 people came and sat together under a tent in Africatown itself was a testimony to what God can do.”

The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 5 by Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski and Father Christopher Schroeder of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, claims that Ste. Genevieve County Detention Center’s no-contact policy bars clergy from ministering to detainees while making exceptions to the rule for nonreligious visitors.

The archdiocese said in an Oct. 5 press release and in the filing that it had asked the facility to accommodate clergy seeking to provide sacraments to detainees but that facility officials refused to do so. “That refusal is troubling, given that other individuals—including lawyers and consular officials—are permitted to visit detained individuals under much more permissive circumstances,” the archdiocese said in the release.

Ste. Genevieve Detention Center houses about 150 immigration detainees and has held about 3,000 detainees, including one who died in the facility, since it began contracting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in mid-2025, according to the filing.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the federal Cabinet department that oversees ICE, rejected the archdiocese’s claims in a statement provided Oct. 6. Federal officials said detainees have access to Catholic sacraments and they disputed claims that jail policies interfere with religious practice.

“These allegations are FALSE. This is a non-contact county jail, not an ICE facility,” the DHS statement said. "DHS ensures detainees are accommodated with religious services, including access to Catholic priests, the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and the Sacrament of Penance as requested.”

Ste. Genevieve Detention Center is listed as an ICE facility on ICEʼs website.

“Let’s be clear: county restrictions on physical contact do not mean religious services are denied. DHS has done its due diligence. The media should do theirs before turning a facility security protocol into another misleading headline,” the DHS statement said.

Archdiocese seeks religious accommodation

The archdiocese’s suit said: “The first and only time any jail official has proposed any accommodation for religious exercise was in response to a reporter,” which culminated in a suggestion from Maj. Jason Schott, who oversees the day-to-day operation of the jail, that clergy deliver Communion to detainees in a plastic bag by prison guards.

“This is no accommodation at all,” the filing states. “Because the celebration of communion is a central piece of the Catholic faith, and because the transubstantiation that occurs in this sacrament involves the real presence of Christ, the Catholic faith imposes strict rules on how communion may be administered. Communion may only be administered by a minister specifically appointed for the purpose.”

A person must be authorized to distribute Communion according to the norms of the diocese and the parish, ordinarily after suitable formation and commissioning by the pastor or bishop. While the Eucharist belongs to the whole Church, its distribution is carried out according to the Churchʼs sacramental and hierarchical order.

The archdiocese said the facility’s “scant defense” for its policies cited concerns for “safety and security risks” and that “priests might smuggle ‘contraband’ to the detainee.’”

“Schott does not explain how the host, which as consecrated is the body of Christ—the very thing priests want to ‘pass to detainees’—could be contraband,” the filing states.

The archdiocese also claimed priests have been barred from accessing the facility during the traditional four-hour window for visitation on Sundays and that “the jail allows clergy to visit only for a 4-hour window on Mondays.”

“The Catholic Church does not seek special treatment,” the archdiocese said in the release. “But only requests the same access as these other groups which, if provided, would allow clergy to offer the Catholic sacraments detainees desperately want.” 

This story was updated at 4:55 p.m. ET on Oct. 6, 2026, to include a response from the Department of Homeland Security.

Seeking the Holy Spirit’s wisdom will help people reach their full potential in their work and responsibilities, Broglio said in the homily Oct. 4 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C.

“We also pray that our understanding of Godʼs presence and his commandments will inspire integrity, devotion to meaning, and the promotion of harmony,” he said.

Hosted by The John Carroll Society, the Red Mass drew more than 1,000 people, including Supreme Court justices, public officials, and Vice President JD Vance, to mark the opening of the judiciary term and pray for judges, attorneys, diplomats, and government leaders.

The name derives from the red color of the archbishops’, cardinals’, and priests’ vestments. All Church officials who participated wore red to represent the tongues of fire symbolizing the presence of the Holy Spirit.

This year marked the 74th anniversary of the Red Mass in Washington, one of several such celebrations held worldwide, such as in Rome, Paris, and London, to invoke blessings on justice administrators.

In response to last year’s Red Mass, when a New Jersey man threatened Catholics and Supreme Court justices, security measures were increased. Amid the increased security, attendees included law students and faculty from area schools such as Georgetown University and The Catholic University of America.

Mark Cummings, a member of the John Carroll Society, an adjunct professor at George Mason University, and a partner at Sher, Cummings, and Ellis, said attendance at the Mass would help students.

“Itʼs inspiring for them, and I think itʼs a very healthy thing to be able to mix with the Supreme Court justices, superior court judges and courts of appeals, as well as Vice President Vance,” Cummings said. “I donʼt know where else theyʼd have an opportunity to see so many people who have made it in the profession and are serving as Supreme Court justices.”

Broglio “talked about the importance of the Constitution, the importance of our laws, and that everybody, even the meekest and lowest of citizens, should have access to justice and how we should. Itʼs set up that way with our Constitution and Bill of Rights,” Cummings said.

Cummings said Broglio’s message was a call for those in the legal profession and public service to help ensure that everyone has equal access to justice.

Broglio also advised officials on how charity should guide all legal professions.

“Your service to order and the virtue of justice is deeply appreciated even by this canon lawyer,” said Broglio, who holds a doctorate in canon law.

Broglio said immigrants, past and present, have helped build the United States, and he urged legal professionals to be “architects of hope” to ensure that charity and fraternity shape the pursuit of justice.

“In his first encyclical, Pope Leo wrote that the way a society treats migrants, refugees, and those forced to move reveals whether its sense of justice is driven by fear or by the spirit of fraternity,” Broglio said.

“Perhaps if more of us directed our thoughts in the ways of peace, we would discover and develop a more civil society and and learn to live in harmony with our neighbors,” Broglio said.

The de Nicola Center said it would present the award to Mother Superior Marie Edward, OP, during a special Mass and dinner at the university on April 24, 2027. This year’s is the 16th annual award the center has presented.

Founded in 1900 by Mother Mary Alphonsa — born Rose Hawthorne, the daughter of famed novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne — the congregation is headquartered in Hawthorne, New York. The sisters there are devoted to caring for impoverished men and women dying from cancer.

Notre Dame President Father Robert Dowd, CSC, said in a press release that the sisters in their work “radiate the very mercy of God.”

“Since their founding, they have proclaimed the Gospel of Life through direct service to God’s beloved poor, fulfilling Christʼs command to comfort the sick and give shelter to the homeless,” Dowd said.

The sisters’ ministry, he said, “highlights the inherent, God-given dignity of every human person, regardless of worldly success or social status.”

Jennifer Newsome Martin, director of the ethics center at the school, likewise described the sisters as “a shining example of Christian charity in action.”

The Evangelium Vitae Medal is presented annually on Respect Life Sunday. It is named after St. John Paul II’s famed 1995 encyclical that testifies in part to the inherent dignity of human life and the need to care for and protect the most vulnerable.

Mother Mary Alphonsa died in 1926 and is buried at Rosary Hill Home at the congregation’s headquarters. She was declared venerable by Pope Francis in 2024.

The philosophy doctoral student at Princeton University recently announced his conversion to Catholicism, but he told EWTN News that he struggled for years with what he saw as uncertainties related to faith, including the problem of evil and the “problem of divine hiddenness.”

McKay is the second Princeton philosophy scholar this year to convert to the Catholic faith; earlier in the summer Joe Schmid announced his own return to the faith after years of having run an agnostic-themed philosophy channel on YouTube.

“I was never an atheist, and I don’t think I was ever agnostic,” McKay told EWTN News. But he experienced profound uncertainties in high school and graduate school, some of which were also related to what he described as “difficulties with the reliability and interpretation of the Bible.”

While he never fully abandoned belief in God, “what firmly convinced me of theism were, first, design arguments based on the fine-tuning of physics for the emergence of life, and, second, the empirical evidence for contemporary Christian miracles,” he said.

“Arguments from consciousness, moral knowledge, and natural beauty also played a role,” he added.

It is perhaps unsurprising that a philosophy scholar would be drawn into the Church in part by scholarly inquiry. Schmid told EWTN News shortly after his conversion, for instance, that “contingency arguments” helped convince him of God’s existence.

McKay, meanwhile, cited “evidence for vindicatory Catholic miracles” as helping lead him to the Catholic Church specifically.

Those miracles “presuppose distinctive teachings of the Catholic Church,” he pointed out, and the evidence for them, he argued, is “as good or better than the evidence for the more generically Christian miracles” in which McKay himself already believed.

He told EWTN News that out of the necessity of consistency he felt he needed to either accept all of those Catholic miracles or reject all of them. “And the evidence was too strong for rejecting all of them to be reasonable!” he said.

The evidence for those miracles wasn’t the only thing that convinced him of the truth of the Catholic faith, he said, but “it did motivate me to look into the history and theology of the Church more carefully,” and the evidence he found for Catholicism was “very strong.”

He urged those considering Catholicism for the first time, or those who are considering returning to it, to start with researching those miracles.

Speaking to Catholic YouTube apologist Cameron Bertuzzi in a recent interview, McKay argued that “if you already accept that Christianity is true, the inference to Catholicism is irresistible.”

He admitted that his decision to join the Church caused his close friends and family “distress” given his Protestant background.

But “I think Catholicism — if you’re fully informed, if you’re really considering all of the evidence — I think Catholicism is basically going to be irresistible,” he said.

Speaking to EWTN News, he also urged potential converts and reverts: “Pray!”

“I found praying the rosary especially helpful when I was discerning Catholicism,” he said. “Just ask God to help you earnestly seek the truth and make the means of discovering it available. Those who seek Christ, earnestly and prayerfully, will find him.”

“I’m going to ask God to make himself known to everyone who reads this article!” he added.

Among the notable figures in attendance were Bishop Louis Tylka of the Diocese of Peoria; Bishop John Barres of the Diocese Rockville Centre, New York; Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota; Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in “The Chosen”; David Henrie, host of EWTN’s travel series “Seeking Beauty”; and Siobhan Fallon Hogan, host of the EWTN podcast “Catholics and Cappuccinos.”

Tylka said Sheen understood the Gospel deserves to be proclaimed with excellence.

“The Sheen awards recognize men and women carrying that missionary spirit into our own time through film and television, digital media, writing, preaching, music, evangelization, and the missionary spirit,” he said.

Seven awards were presented including the Radio and Podcast Impact Award, the Evangelization Impact Award, the Mission and Humanitarian Impact Award, the Innovation Impact Award, the Digital Creator Impact Award, the Television and Streaming Impact Award, and the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Lifetime Achievement Award.

Mother Angelica, EWTN’s foundress, posthumously received the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. The award was bestowed on Mother Angelica in recognition of her lifetime of service to the Church and her pioneering use of television to proclaim the Gospel through the Eternal Word Television Network.

Sheen “pioneered the use of media to evangelize, and he passed on the torch to others,” Tylka said. “Mother Angelica carried the torch forward, pioneering broadcasting television through what is now a global network.”

EWTN Studios President Peter Gagnon accepted the award on her behalf.

“On behalf of Michael Warsaw, CEO, and myself, we want to thank Bishop Tylka and the Archbishop Sheen Foundation for honoring Mother Angelica with this award,” Gagnon said in his acceptance speech.

Gagnon worked with Mother Angelica for many years and pointed out that “one of her favorite expressions was to say, ‘This is awesome!’”

He said: “When there would be a papal event, she would say, ‘Wasnʼt that awesome?’ … I think tonight she would say, ‘This is awesome.’”

A little over one year after the death of Sheen — on Dec. 12, 1980 — EWTN was officially incorporated by Mother Angelica. Reflecting on this, Gagnon said: “I donʼt think itʼs a coincidence.”

“Mother Angelica took the torch from Archbishop Sheen because she saw the power of reaching people through the media, through television,” he said. “She, like Archbishop Sheen, could reach through that camera lens and talk to you. And when she was talking to you, she was talking to you directly.”

Gagnon added: “Also like him [Sheen], she had just an incredible love for the Church and a zeal for souls. I never knew anyone who loved Our Lord as much as Mother Angelica did. Her impact on many throughout the world is truly humbling and amazing.”

EWTN has aired “Life Is Worth Living,” Sheen’s popular television show, for over 20 years. Gagnon emphasized that the network is “proud to share his words and message throughout the world.”

In an additional statement commenting on the significance of the award, Michael Warsaw, chairman and CEO of EWTN Global Catholic Network, noted: “Among the great Catholic evangelists of the 20th century, Blessed Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, and our own Mother Angelica, stand out for the extraordinary ways they embraced media to proclaim the Gospel, defend the dignity of the human person and speak the truth to a world desperately in need of Jesus Christ.”

“It is especially meaningful to see Mother Angelica honored in the name of Archbishop Sheen, whose pioneering use of radio and television demonstrated the power of media in service of the Gospel,” Warsaw pointed out. He said the recognition is “particularly poignant as we mark the 10th anniversary of Mother Angelica’s passing.”

“She would have been deeply honored to be recognized at the inaugural Sheen Awards and counted among the innovators and communicators carrying forward Archbishop Sheen’s legacy,” Warsaw added.

Broaching the topic of Mother Angelica’s own potential cause for canonization, Warsaw indicated: “While I remain mindful of the Church’s careful discernment regarding any potential cause for sainthood, I can say personally that I pray and hope that one day Mother Angelica might be numbered among the saints of the Church she loved and served so faithfully.”

Warsaw concluded: “On behalf of the entire EWTN family, I am profoundly grateful for this recognition of Mother Angelica and, more importantly, for the opportunity to remember what animated both Mother Angelica and Blessed Fulton Sheen: the desire to bring souls to Jesus Christ. May their example inspire us all to use the gifts God has given us to proclaim the Gospel with courage, creativity and joy.”

Additional Sheen Award recipients included Katie McGrady, who received the Radio and Podcast Impact Award; Roumie, who received the Television and Streaming Impact Award; and Barron, who received the Evangelization Impact Award.

The Mission and Humanitarian Impact Award went to the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, while Hallow received the Innovation Impact Award. Paul J. Kim was awarded the Digital Creator Impact Award.

Watch EWTN’s livestream of the red carpet at the Sheen Awards here.

This story was updated at 8:15 p.m. ET Oct. 4, 2026, to include comments by Bishop Louis Tylka.

Christopher Graney, an adjunct scholar at the Vatican Observatory, told “EWTN News Nightly” anchor Veronica Dudo on Oct. 2: “From a modern astronomy perspective, Earth is not an ordinary place. Doesn’t mean that there’s no other planets like Earth elsewhere in the universe, but the universe is certainly not full of worlds like Earth.”

Graney asks readers to look at Earth in the context of the vast universe in his new book “A Universe of Earths: Our Planet and Other Worlds, Copernicus to NASA” (Oxford University Press, 2026).

For much of modern history, astronomers believed Earth was unremarkable and that many Earth-like worlds populated the universe, Graney said. However, Graney debunks this theory and argues for a more realistic approach to our solar system.

“Not long ago, at least in terms of Church history, astronomers thought Earth was very ordinary,” he said. “They thought that there were lots of places like Earth. You will find this in historical writings from the 19th century especially.”

For example, Jesuit Father Angelo Secchi, a pioneering Italian astronomer in the 19th century considered one of the founders of astrophysics, favored the idea that the universe contained many inhabited worlds. He wrote that stars were suns distributing “life and goodness” to “innumerable beings blessed by the hand of the Omnipotent,” reflecting a common 19th-century belief that life existed throughout the cosmos.

In modern astronomy, “we know that Mars is completely lifeless, or at least there’s so little life on there if it has any that we haven’t found it yet … we’ve observed planets orbiting other stars. The universe is so diverse. Those star systems, those planets seem very different from Earth,” he said.

At the Vatican Observatory, Graney focuses his research on the history of science by studying asteroids, galaxies, and cosmology.

When asked whether the Vatican was aware of any extraterrestrial sightings or signs elsewhere in the solar system, Graney dismissed theories that the Vatican is concealing evidence of alien life, saying such stories are “a lot more dull” in reality and that any life elsewhere in the universe is likely too far away to have reached Earth.

“It’s more boring, I guess, than the Vatican hiding space aliens. But that’s the way it is,” Graney said.

The docudrama features several prominent Catholic figures including Archbishop Paul Coakley of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City; Archbishop José Gómez of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; Father Chris Alar of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception; Curtis Martin, the founder of FOCUS; evangelist Chris Stefanick; and many more.

The film will be in theaters across the United States Oct. 4–8.

The inspiration for the film came as a response to the docudrama “Jesus Thirsts: The Miracle of the Eucharist,” which was released in theaters in 2024. Created by the same filmmakers as “Adore Him,” “Jesus Thirsts” was made in response to a poll that showed that roughly 70% of Catholics don’t believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

“We wanted to demonstrate that Jesus is real in the Eucharist,” Deacon Steve Greco, the filmmaker behind both films, told EWTN News in an interview. “So the people who saw that movie, many of them were inspired to say, ‘OK, now that Jesus is real, I have to do something different. My life has to be different.’ And in changing your life and your world, it really comes down to ‘I need to really be connected with him.’”

He added: “So “Adore Him: He Is Here” is really meant to be a continuation, almost like a sequel, to the very first movie in which in order to activate Jesus, to activate the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we need to understand how to worship him. And Eucharistic adoration changes our entire life.”

Greco also believes this film is necessary for today because “the Church is really being led back to Eucharist in a way like never before.”

“We have this great activation going on in which people are really desiring the Blessed Sacrament and the Eucharist and going before the Blessed Sacrament in a way like never before,” he said. “We see more and more churches going to 24/7 adoration. Theyʼre expanding their hours of adoration. More and more people are going before the Blessed Sacrament to really be energized and to receive graces.”

For those who are feeling called to go to Eucharistic adoration, potentially for the first time, Greco would advise them to “start with 10 minutes and just talk to the Lord. Just have a conversation like with your best friend and just be quiet.”

Then those 10 minutes can turn into 20, then half an hour, and finally a full hour. But, the most important thing you need to do, he said, is to “open up your heart to his love.”

“You will find that when you go before the Blessed Sacrament, if you open your heart and youʼre silent before the Lord and youʼre listening before the Lord, … God will come to you in a powerful way and show you that you are his beloved,” Greco added.

With this in mind, he said he hopes viewers of the film will take away “that first of all, Jesus is real; the Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist is real. The Blessed Sacrament is there for us to allow us to get to really experience his love in a way like never before. We hope that people go to the Blessed Sacrament, to the chapel.”

“When they see this movie [we hope] they just start going and believing and get into the habit of going a few times a week if not every day and just let God love you and that will transform their life. That will give them hope and joy.”

In response, the Diocese of San Jose, California, led by Bishop Oscar Cantú, has launched a landmark convalidation initiative under the California bishops’ “Radiate Love” campaign, witnessing dozens of couples enter into the sacrament of matrimony over the past few months.

Originally planned as a small pilot program, the initiative received a massive swell in interest from local families seeking to place Christ at the center of their marriages. Because of the high volume of registrants, celebrations took place across multiple communal Masses presided over by diocesan bishops on July 25, Aug. 1, and Sept. 26, alongside separate private ceremonies for couples who requested them.

The initiative began after the director for Adult Spirituality and Family Life for the Diocese of San Jose, Jose Soto, noticed how many couples attending weekly Mass with their children refrained from Communion due to their marital status.

“We adapted the title ‘Radiate Love’ because it was used by the California bishops as a way to promote marriage and family in 2024-2025,” Soto said. “So, as that initiative was drawing to a close, I created a Radiate Love task force, which was about four or five marriages that I put out an invitation to, and they were passionate about marriage and family, and they helped me put on events throughout the year. One of them said, ‘Jose, my heart breaks when I see couples ... come to church, they bring their kids to Mass on Sunday, and they donʼt take Communion, and I wonder if thereʼs anything we can do to help those couples.’ And that’s how it started.”

While organizers initially planned for a small cohort of 12 to 15 couples to establish a framework, news of the program spread through parishes. After the time to sign up was over, there were a total of 102 couples ready to begin.

“We were just so excited and overwhelmed at the same time, but it was so joyful,” Soto said. “It just said to me that there’s a need out there, and that couples are willing to come forward when they are welcomed, and when they are, when they see that thereʼs an initiative from the Church to walk with them, to journey with them.”

Volunteer mentors Veronica and Richard Wildanger, who had their own civil marriage convalidated 22 years ago, joined the task force after being approached by Soto to support the “wonderfully successful” surge of applicants.

To ensure couples received thorough pastoral care, the diocese implemented the Witness to Love program for marriage preparation by pairing up civilly married couples with experienced mentor couples to walk them through the process. The Wildangers believed this was the next step in turning their marriage toward God.

“And the fact that the diocese offered it up, all of a sudden it was like someone stretching a hand out and saying, here, just hold my hand and we’ll guide you through every step,” Veronica said.

For candidates like Mireya Aristizábal and Juan David Díaz, who were married civilly three years after moving from Colombia, the program provided both spiritual clarity and personal connection as a couple.

“But in my heart, there was always that little itch,” Aristizábal said in Spanish. “Because I said, ‘Well, I want to be with my partner, but I want to be with him before God.’ That is, the sacrament of matrimony. It’s that, the desire to have and to live the sacrament to its fullest.”

Her husband saw the decision as a way to support his wife’s spiritual life while growing in his own faith.

“She was invited to the party, but they weren’t giving her dinner,” he said in Spanish. “So it’s very difficult … to block her from her beliefs. I said, ‘No, I also believe in God, I like the Catholic Church, so let’s go.’”

According to Aristizábal, the preparation process helped ground their relationship in shared spiritual formation, finding their community in their new home to join them for the celebration on Sept. 26.

“The impact has been drawing us closer to God, knowing that we are seeking him, and that we want to put him in first place in our lives,” Aristizábal said in Spanish.

Throughout the program, organizers and mentors emphasized the theology of sacramental marriage as an unbreakable covenant rather than a mere social agreement, Soto explained.

“When you bring God into it, this is now a covenantal marriage, not sort of a contractual marriage, but a sacramental marriage,” Wildanger told EWTN News. “Our Lord is now present, and you owe a responsibility to God to really try to help your spouse get to heaven. Itʼs not solely at this level; itʼs more of an also at this level. And God is now watching and present in you and can bring graces from that.”

Soto noted that elevating civil unions into sacramental covenants provides families with a deeper sense of purpose, stating that couples can “mirror that when they give themselves to each other in holy matrimony.”

For many couples, receiving the Eucharist after years of abstaining was an emotional milestone. Some even had exceeded 30 years of only civil marriage, causing many tears of joy, according to Veronica Wildanger.

Rather than detracting from the intimacy of the sacrament, participating in a group ceremony highlighted the universal nature of the Church.

“That makes me see that the Church is unity, and that sharing this sacrament with other people demonstrates that the Church is still very much alive, that it believes in marriage, and that it wants to keep fighting for it,” Aristizábal said.

For couples who did not reach the program in time, or were limited due to missing documentation, time constraints, or anxieties — all of which Soto claimed were obstacles experienced by couples during the last year, the message of encouragement is clear: Do not be afraid.

“I would just say that the Church welcomes you, and the Church is here with open arms, and that whenever you are ready, we are here to walk with you every step of the way,” Soto said. “So my advice would just be to, if you have it in your heart, if thereʼs been a tug in your heart that says, maybe I should get married in the Church, to listen to it, to respond to it.”

The estate of a child killed in utero during the third trimester collected $200,000 under New Mexico’s wrongful death law.

The case, Wabbington v. Boyd, argued by Albuquerque medical malpractice attorney Mike Seibel, described the unborn baby as a “person” who was "entitled to equal protection under the law.” Seibel advocates for women who have been injured by abortion.

The baby’s mother had been under the influence of methamphetamine when she went to an abortion clinic in 2020 and was thus unable to give valid informed consent, but the abortion was provided anyway.

The lawsuit said that abortionists also failed to inform her of support available to her in the state or refer her to the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department.

Seibel told Live Action News that the case was the first time an abortionist was ever sued for the wrongful death of a baby.

3 states file lawsuit against telehealth abortion

Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama have filed lawsuits against providers who ship abortion drugs into their states and against California, Massachusetts, and New York over their laws shielding abortion pill providers.

The states’ Sept. 30 lawsuit against abortion providers calls mail-order abortion “one of the most dramatic and sweeping interstate conflicts in modern history.”

“If state sovereignty means anything, it means that states like Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama cannot be forced to endure open violations of their laws, deaths of their babies, and harms to their women and girls simply because an out-of-state actor disagrees with their sovereign prerogative to choose life within their borders,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit names as defendants several abortion pill providers, including Cambridge Reproductive Health Consultants Inc. in Massachusetts and A Safe Choice Network Inc. in California.

A separate lawsuit brought by the states asks the U.S. Supreme Court to rule the abortion shield laws of California, Massachusetts, and New York unconstitutional.

Poland opens first abortion pill delivery locker

Activist groups in Poland have launched a locker to distribute abortion pills, which they say is the first of its kind in the world.

Women Help Women, a global group that provides abortion pills without physicians, and the Polish abortion activism group Abortion Dream Team put the locker across from Parliament in Warsaw.

The organization gives women who are seeking abortion a six-digit code to open one of 22 numbered lockers.

Abortion is legal in Poland in cases of rape or incest or if there is risk to the mother’s life or health.

Respect Life Month prioritizes abortion pill

As Respect Life Month kicks off in October, the U.S. Catholic bishops are emphasizing the importance of opposing abortion pills.

Toledo Bishop Daniel Thomas, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ pro-life committee, released a statement on Sept. 29 describing the risks of injury and exploitation from abortion pills as “affronts to human dignity.”

“Today, with easier access to abortion pills, the abortion rate is tragically climbing, along with increased health risks,” Thomas said. “This means that more women, many of whom have been misinformed about the nature and risks of the abortion pill, will have an abortion alone at home, without any medical supervision. It also sets up additional opportunities for exploitation by violent partners or human traffickers.”

Thomas urged the faithful to pray and take action against abortion.

“Our Blessed Mother is our model for upholding the sanctity of all human life in every stage and circumstance,” Thomas continued. “We entrust all our efforts to protect mothers and babies to her motherly care, which we greatly need at this time.”

“I thank the many thousands of Catholics across the country who have embraced the nationwide invitation to prayer and action on abortion pills, and I ask that we continue our prayers and advocacy throughout the month of October,” Thomas said.

Bishop Burbidge calls for weekly fasting, rosary against abortion amendment

As Virginians prepare to vote on an amendment that could create a right to abortion in the state’s constitution, Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington is calling on the faithful to take up weekly fasting and prayer throughout October.

The “Catholics Vote No” campaign urges Catholics to vote no on the Virginia Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment along with the Virginia Remove Constitutional Same-Sex Marriage Ban Amendment.

Burbidge asked Catholics to fast every Friday and pray the rosary each Sunday this October.

“Our Catholics Vote No campaign is rooted in prayer and fasting,” Burbidge said in a statement. “Therefore, On Fridays, I ask that you pray the Stations of the Cross. And fast—which means eating only one full meal and no meat.”

“On Sundays, I ask that you pray the Rosary and fast from social media for at least a few hours—especially before and after Mass,” he said.

“It would be a powerful force if all in the Diocese of Arlington were united in these efforts,” Burbidge continued. “We entrust them to the Lord’s amazing grace, so all that is just, right, and true will be done in this election.”

Adam Blai, a lay adviser in the Pittsburgh Diocese on cases involving alleged demonic activity, told “EWTN News Nightly” on Oct. 1 that the number of cases there has risen sharply in the past five years. He said he and his team pray with people weekly and that exorcists he works with nationwide report being extremely busy.

“For some reason, there’s an increase,” said Blai, who also teaches priests how to perform exorcisms at the Pope Leo XIII Institute at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois. “But the more important, beautiful part is the Holy Spirit is raising up this ministry.”

Blai said warding off attack from demonic spirits starts with avoiding occult or other practices that invite in the spirits. “They need permission,” he said. “The evil spirits need permission from God to do what they do.”

“When we play with the occult, with divination, with ghost hunting, with Ouija boards, we are reaching out to random spirits and saying, ‘I want my comfort or my information from you right now on my terms, Iʼm not going to wait on God, Iʼm not going to trust God, Iʼm not going to trust his providence or his grace, I’m going to seek out other spirits,’” Blai continued. “And when we do that, we form a relationship with them. And thatʼs the root of these extraordinary demonic problems.”

Blai said the Church has learned to “carefully discern” whether something is a spiritual problem, medical problem, misunderstanding, or even a false claim of possession.

“If we start saying these dramatic prayers over a person with mental illness that has delusional ideas, we could encourage those ideas,” he said.

Ultimately, Blai noted that the bishop has sole authority to determine which priests may say exorcism prayers. “Every priest has the power to do exorcisms in their ordination. What they donʼt have is permission to pick up the exorcism rite and pray it over somebody until the bishop gives that to them,” he said.

“Now, all that being said, is it wise to have a priest who is pious, has a good, solid spiritual life, is well known to the bishop? Absolutely. And do some priests have gifts of discernment that may help them in the ministry? Yes, but itʼs not required,” he concluded. “Jesus tends to provide the other people and gifts and support around the ministry that that exorcist needs.”

Fabre reminded Catholics of their “responsibility to vote” and to “form our consciences according to the Gospel and Church teaching” in the video messages produced by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The bishops released the videos as U.S. voters prepare for the 2026 midterm elections Nov. 3 that will decide control of Congress, dozens of governorships, and hundreds of state‑level offices nationwide.

“Our identity in Christ must come before any political identity,” said Fabre, chair of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

Our identity in Christ must come before any political identity.”

Bishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville

Chair of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development

Fabre said voting is a moral act rooted in the dignity of human life, charity toward others, and the pursuit of the common good.

“We discern and we pray, and we participate in public life by voting, but also in many other ways, by advocating for the human dignity of each and every person, and also always reminding political structures and political groups that our concern is for the common good,” Fabre said in the video "Forming Our Consciences and Voting.”

“At the center of my decision is my desire to be the best disciple of Jesus Christ that I can be,” Fabre said in the video "The Call to Put Faith Before Politics."

Clergy training

Another USCCB video titled “Preaching Faithful Citizenship and the Call to Put Faith Before Politics,” released last month, features Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas; Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore; and Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland, Oregon. Catholics must witness to Christ’s love in how they speak, act, and engage politically — not only in what positions they hold, the prelates say in the 16-minute video.

“We need to be agents that promote unity among people, dialogue among people, meaningful conversations among people, respecting the dignity of each and every person who is my neighbor,” Sample said in the video. “This is the whole surrounding question around the story of the good Samaritan. And Jesus teaches us in that parable, and we can instruct our people to look there, because that whole parable of the good Samaritan begins with the question, ‘And who is my neighbor?’”

Lori said: “I think that that is one of the things that we have to learn to do continually in the life of the Church is to encounter one another, not because we agree on everything, but precisely in those things where we might disagree, but looking at the other person, not as a position to be disagreed with, but a person made in Godʼs image and likeness and called to eternal life.”

A written guide for clergy offers a structured training plan to help them teach Catholics how to engage in political life with a well-formed conscience rooted in Church teaching.

The archdiocese told its official news outlet, the Catholic Review, that it will ordain 12 priests in 2027, one in January and 11 in June, and overall, the numbers have grown from 28 seminarians in 2007, 52 in 2020, and 66 this year. In 2026, 14 men, ranging in age from 17 to 36, entered formation from 14 different parishes, according to the archdiocese.

“This has not been sudden,” Archbishop William E. Lori told the Catholic Review. “It’s been building every year, and this is due to a lot of people praying before the Blessed Sacrament. It’s due to a good vocations team. It’s also due to pastors who are encouraging vocations in their parishes — and to parents who are generously open to the possibility that their son might have a priestly vocation.”

Father Steven Roth, vocations director and associate vicar for clergy, told EWTN News that when Lori came to Baltimore, the archbishop was given staggering statistics on the declining number of clergy there, and “from the start, he was determined to reverse that trend.”

Lori ordained five priests and 12 transitional deacons at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in May 2026.

“We did the counterintuitive,” Roth said. “We raised the bar for the application process. Because of that, we now have 66 vocations directors,” he said of the 66 current seminarians.

“Our success is based on the men who have said yes. Theyʼre the best advertisement for us,” he said, recounting a scenario where a man was on the fence about applying to seminary, but a seminarian on a summer assignment at a parish helped the man decide to apply.

Roth said newly ordained priests are filling positions that have been empty for years: hospital, high school and college chaplaincies, and parishes that have not had an associate pastor in decades.

He said they are already seeing the positive effects: at one parish in particular, he said, there has been “a drastic difference” since the arrival of a young priest who is assisting the pastor: "To have a young priest with vigor, it just energizes the community; it excites everyone to continue this work … there are more people now, and the energy in the parish is different.”

What brought the initial increase, Roth said, were efforts to get parish leadership to see there was a need for more vocations. “They’ve run with it,” he said. “Pastors have been huge supporters of the archbishop’s push and the key to the rising numbers.”

Many parishes have created a culture of vocation awareness, encouraging Eucharistic adoration and welcoming him and Father Lenin Suarez, the associate director of vocations, to speak. Pastors have personally invited young men to go to attend discernment retreats such as Quo Vadis, and Quo Vadis Beyond, directed toward high school-aged men.

Both of the archdiocese’s propaedeutic houses, in Emmitsburg and Baltimore, are full, the Catholic Review reported, and three of this year’s new seminarians will spend that first year, the propaedeutic year — a period of prayer, discernment, and human formation — at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary instead, working with the Source of All Hope program among the homeless.

Formation can last up to nine years, Roth said, and is intended to be a time of healthy discernment in which the men have the opportunity to reflect on their experiences.

In addition to academics, the archdiocese said seminarians undergo background checks, meet with priests and spiritual directors, and work at various parish ministries as they discern and before they are formally accepted.

“We have an intense process, once we think they’re capable of formation, then we give them the application” to the seminary, Roth said. “We don’t just send an application to everyone.”

While there are men who leave, Roth said it’s a small number. “We do have men who discern out and become wonderful husbands and fathers,” he said.

Roth said the quality of the candidates is impressive.

“I’m impressed with them all the time,” he said. He described how some have a charism for working with the poor in Baltimore City, spending time with the drug addicted and the homeless. “They’re not afraid at all,” Roth said.

He also described the fraternity among the seminarians, calling it “incredible.”

“When a man is accepted as a seminarian, the other guys immediately start emailing him, inviting him to events,” Roth said. “If a man is sick, or if a family member of his is sick or dies, they all rally around” and care for him.

A few years ago, a man in a college seminary broke his leg in a football game. The other seminarians reconfigured the seminary so he could come back sooner while he was still in a wheelchair. “It was inspiring to me,” Roth said. “They were all cheering him on.”

The vocations director said that while “we celebrate not only the number as well as the caliber” of the young men, “the work is not done. There is so much more opportunity for evangelization. That is why we have to keep praying for vocations.”

“Our priests work so hard, they are stretched to the limits. We hope to start expanding our evangelization efforts,” Roth said. “We’ve envisioned journeying with families who’ve lost a loved one. What usually happens when someone dies is the parish works with the family though the funeral, and that’s it. At best you get an invite to an All Souls liturgy later in the year. Imagine if a priest had the time to walk with the family in the months and years after a death, or facilitate a group of laypeople to support the family?”

Regarding the sacraments, Roth said while the Church is good at providing them, it is not great with the follow-up. He would like to see priests supporting young married couples through the first years of marriage and after the baptism of their children. He’d also like to see priests and lay members reach out to fallen away Catholics, showing care and inviting them back to the Church.

Roth said he hopes publicity about the rising numbers of seminarians doesn’t mean people will stop praying for more priests. On the contrary, he said, “the archbishop says this is the time for more prayers, for more men to say yes. We are asking for more vocations in every realm: more marriages; for more young women to enter religious communities.”

“This is a very broad project. This does not mean the job is done, it’s just the beginning,” he said.

Hegseth introduced the Office of Religious Affairs at the Department of Defense (DOD) in his Sept. 30 State of the Force Address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, which was attended by 600 officers and service members.

In his speech, Hegseth said the office will report directly to him and to the secretaries who serve after him. He said there will be “no staff filters” and “no bureaucratic dilution” but rather a “direct line to the secretary” for the chaplains.

“This wonʼt be a paper-pushing shop,” he said. “It will have real teeth. It will protect budgets, demand infrastructure, and strengthen religious support. The experts, our chaplains, will finally have an advocate at the highest levels. Policy and resources will serve the mission, not smother the mission.”

In a statement to EWTN News, the Catholic military archdiocese said it hopes the new office “will enhance and strengthen the support offered to the men, women and their families who serve in the military, and to the chaplain corps who strive to accompany our soldiers, sailors, and airmen across all service branches.”

“Placing spiritual readiness alongside other departmental priorities, and shortening the timeline between identified field needs and senior decisions can have the practical effect of resolving legacy constraints that historically limited chaplaincy support,” the statement said. “This Archdiocese appreciates the initiative and welcomes its implementation.”

Structural change

Hegseth explained the new structure is meant to ensure chaplains do not need to go through secular bureaucracy.

The secretary said, under the old system, “we let people with no expertise in faith or religion dictate the spiritual life of our warriors,” and the chaplains “were buried echelons deep, waiting for permission.”

“Decisions about faith and religion were made by secular careerists in cubicles and lawyers running around with red tape,” he said.

The secretary blamed the previous structure for budget cuts, failures to adequately meet needs for resourcing and manpower, and a lack of support for chapels on bases. He said faith had been treated as “an afterthought” even though only 5% of the military is nonreligious.

“Our department therefore has a sacred duty — first-class religious support wherever we send our warriors,” Hegseth said. “... For far too long, you know, we didnʼt prioritize that duty at all.”

Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, has supported some of Hegseth’s other reforms of the chaplaincy as well.

Broglio celebrated Hegseth’s removal of the official spiritual fitness guide, which the secretary said was “pushing secular humanism” and treating chaplains like “emotional support officers” rather than as chaplains.

The archbishop said the change allowed chaplains to focus on spiritual ministry “above and beyond everything else that they might ask the chaplains to do.”

Broglio also spoke positively of Hegseth’s decision to change the chaplain insignia on uniforms to reflect the faith role instead of the military rank.

“If the decision to eliminate the rank insignia for chaplains so as to favor the insignia indicating religious affiliation contributes to making chaplains more approachable, the archdiocese favors it,” the archbishop said in March.

Alternatively, the archdiocese faced problems with the Army in 2025 amid canceled religious contracts, which the DOD ultimately worked to restore.

Apart from the chaplaincy, Broglio has criticized some military decisions from President Donald Trump’s administration. In April, he echoed the concerns of Pope Leo XIV, saying it was “hard” to see how the Iran war could be justified under Catholic just war doctrine.

The archbishop was also critical of earlier threats to annex Greenland, along with attacks on alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela that killed more than 100 people.

Missionaries of St. John the Baptist, a Catholic religious association that runs the Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel in Park Hills, Kentucky — just south of Cincinnati, Ohio — faces a lawsuit that seeks to block its construction of a grotto shrine that pays homage to the Marian apparitions in 1858 in Lourdes, France.

The city board initially approved the chapel’s request to construct the shrine by granting it a variance from a zoning ordinance that would have typically prevented construction in that location, but two neighbors objected to the shrine and filed a lawsuit.

The case went up to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which ruled against the chapel, finding that the city board exceeded its authority when it gave the chapel a variance from the ordinance.

Joel and Elizabeth Frederic, the neighbors, expressed concerns about traffic and parking if the shrine were to become a pilgrimage site. The chapel argued the shrine would simply include a statue of Mary inside a grotto, a statue of St. Bernadette — who witnessed the apparitions — and a patio and walkway.

The Catholic association that operates the chapel argues that blocking the construction of the shrine would violate the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which states that zoning laws cannot substantially burden a church’s exercise of religion. This is also the law cited by the city council as its reason for approving the chapel’s variance.

“Telling a church it can’t build a modest place for prayer and reflection on its own property is outrageous,” Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO, and chief counsel at the First Liberty Institute, which is providing legal representation to the chapel, said in a statement.

“Federal law provides clear protections for how faith-based organizations can use their property to support their mission,” she said. “This is an important case for religious freedom.”

Oral arguments have not yet been scheduled. The case could set nationwide precedent for how cities are expected to handle zoning laws that could impose burdens on religious practice.

The award, presented on Sept. 24, recognizes scientists under the age of 45 who have distinguished themselves through their research and show “exceptional promise” in their field. Recipients of this medal include several Nobel laureates and the physicist Stephen Hawking.

Öberg holds the Thomas Dudley Cabot Chair in the Natural Sciences at Harvard University and directs the Öberg Astrochemistry Laboratory at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Her work focuses, among other topics, on chemical processes related to planet formation and chemical habitability.

But beyond her scientific career, Öberg has spoken publicly about her conversion to Catholicism and how her pursuit of knowledge influenced her journey toward faith.

In a 2011 interview with the Augustine Institute, she explained that there were aspects of the world that began to make it difficult for her to accept a strictly materialist worldview.

“There were certain facts about the world that made me very skeptical of atheism or pure materialism. I thought it was pretty obvious there is moral realism in this world, that there are things that are good and evil, regardless of what people think about them,” she noted.

Reading C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity” played an important role in that process. As she explained, the British writer’s proposal seemed reasonable to her.

“His explanation of Christianity struck me as very sensible, and it seemed to fit with the data about the world I had already gathered,” she stated.

For Öberg, however, intellectually accepting the faith was not the end of the journey. “What took time was the aspect of charity — living out the faith and truly building a relationship with God,” she explained.

The scientist has also reflected on the limits and scope of the scientific method when it comes to God. She was clear in that interview: “You can never use the scientific method to prove or disprove God.”

In her view, science does allow us to appreciate something she considers especially significant: “how intelligible the universe is, how subject to laws it is.” She added: “This cannot be taken for granted. It is magnificent.”

The beauty of the universe also plays an important role in her understanding of the relationship between science and faith. “I am moved. And beauty is, in a sense, just as impressive to me,” she said.

For this reason, Öberg said she believes that science and faith need not be presented as opposing paths.

The scientist has also spoken openly about being Catholic.

“I am very open about the fact that I am Catholic,” she said in the interview. At the same time, she explained that she prefers this openness to foster dialogue rather than lead to imposition.

“I try to be open and then invite people to come and talk to me, rather than preaching to them,” she noted.

Öberg has also expressed a special affinity for the Dominican tradition and for St. Thomas Aquinas, whom she cited as a particularly important figure for the way he united faith and reason.

Her brother, Erik Öberg, an economist specializing in macroeconomics at Uppsala University in Sweden, publicly celebrated the recognition Karin received via his LinkedIn account. “I’m very proud of her,” he stated.

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

Generac Power Systems, a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of generators, will pay a monetary settlement to a former employee and update its religious workplace rules after it reportedly failed to fully adhere to “reasonable accommodation” rules in the dispute.

The former worker in question had reportedly wished to continue using biologically accurate pronouns to refer to an employee who believed themself to be the opposite sex. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission intervened in the dispute and announced its resolution on Sept. 30.

The commission said Generac had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to “fully engage in the reasonable accommodation interactive process” before denying the religious accommodation.

The company denied the religious employee’s accommodation request “even after the [employee] informed Generac that using non-biological pronouns went against his sincerely held religious belief,” the employment commission said.

The corporation will pay out monetary relief to the employee, who has since resigned from the company, the commission said.

In addition, the company will “update its religious accommodation policies and provide training with the goal of promoting greater understanding and effective handling of religious accommodation requests going forward.”

A Generac spokesman said in the government’s press release that the company is “committed to treating employees fairly and respectfully” and in accordance with U.S. and state law.

The commission says that employers are obligated to make reasonable accommodations for religious employees unless doing so would “create an undue hardship” for the employer.

The accommodation rule “aims to prevent individuals from being forced to choose between their religious convictions and practices and their job,” the government says.

Pike, who was convicted in 1996 of the brutal 1995 torture and killing of Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, was scheduled to be executed on Sept. 30 by lethal injection.

Yet officials said she survived the administration of two syringes of lethal pentobarbital, after which she was transported to a medical facility for treatment.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee subsequently suspended executions in the state for the remainder of the year and ordered an investigation into the state’s capital punishment procedures.

In a statement on Oct. 1, Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, said the group was “stunned and bewildered” by the “unprecedented” incident.

Valliancourt Murphy said the group, which works to oppose the death penalty across the U.S., was praying for both Pike and for Slemmer’s family; it acknowledged that the situation “must surely be retraumatizing” for the latter.

“There is nothing normal about taking a life, and last night’s horrifying events reminds us of that,” she said.

The group in its statement referenced Tennessee’s botched execution of Tony Carruthers earlier in the year. The medical team overseeing that execution had failed to find a vein when attempting to set up a backup IV line for the lethal drugs. The state ultimately suspended Carruthers’ execution for a year.

“For Tennessee to have two botched executions in a matter of months is beyond alarming. It is the epitome of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ under the Eighth Amendment,” Valliancourt Murphy said.

“We pray this is the needed wake up call for Gov. Lee — in fact, for everyone — to recognize the barbarism of capital punishment,” she added.

Had she been successfully executed by the state, Pike would have been the first woman subject to capital punishment there in 200 years.

The Death Penalty Information Center says the state has executed 17 convicted criminals since 2000, the vast majority with lethal injection, though several have been electrocuted to death.

The senators’ amicus brief comes after a lower court decision in Woolard v. Thurmond that ruled home-school independent-study programs are public-school programs.

“As part of California’s publicly funded independent-study programs, parents can teach their own children in their own homes with limited oversight from a private, nonprofit corporation operating a charter school,” the brief said. “And subject to general state standards, parents can choose any curriculum they want for their homeschooling—with one exception: religion. That overt discrimination—which Respondents say is required by California’s Blaine Amendment—clearly violates the Constitution. And it is preposterous to say, as did the Ninth Circuit, that homeschooling parents are actually state actors.”

“This amicus brief argues that specifically restricting the rights of parents to use faith-based curriculum is unconstitutional, and I am hopeful that this argument will help the Supreme Court to determine that a California court decision should be overturned,” Hyde-Smith said in a Sept. 29 press release.

Catholic senators who signed on to the brief include Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Nebraska, and Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho.

Notre Dame religious-liberty advocates urge Supreme Court to allow state funding for religious studies

Notre Dame law professors and religious liberty organizations are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider a 2004 ruling that allows states to exclude students pursuing religious-ministry degrees from publicly funded scholarships.

The Sept. 14 brief argues that Locke v. Davey is hard to square with newer Supreme Court rulings that bar states from discriminating against religious students and institutions.

The brief comes amid religious liberty cases involving two Virginia students, Bethany Hall and Cameron Johnson, who were denied state scholarship funds because they are pursuing degrees related to religious ministry.

“This Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from barring religious institutions, and the individuals that they serve and educate, from public funding solely because they are religious or engage in religious activity or instruction,” the brief said. “Locke sits uneasily with these recent decisions.”

The Notre Dame Law School Education Law Project; the Notre Dame Program on Church, State, and Society; and Notre Dame Law School’s Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic are listed on the brief alongside the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

Baylor center to build chapel as student Mass attendance surges

St. Peter Catholic Student Center — the Catholic ministry adjacent to Baylor University in Texas — announced plans to build a new, larger chapel because the existing worship space is too small for the number of students attending Mass.

Father Henry Carter Finch of the Catholic center at one of the largest Baptist universities in the U.S. said: “Our community has grown tremendously the past few years, as more and more young people respond to the promptings of grace to seek the fullness of life in the Church.”

Finch said in a video message announcing the construction of the chapel that the pews are overflowing and the OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) program is full.

According to the Catholic center’s website, the chapel will have 460 seats. An existing chapel has 175 seats with 220 in overflow configuration. The chapel is projected to cost $10 million.

News of the chapel comes as Catholic conversions have reportedly surged on college campuses across the country.

Catholic University rises in U.S. News’ ‘Best Colleges’ rankings

The Catholic University of America (CUA) has risen 21 places in U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Colleges” rankings.

CUA jumped from 169 to 148 in the 2027 edition of national university rankings and also debuted at No. 75 in the “Top Private Colleges” category. It rose three spots to No. 72 on the list of “Best Value Schools,” according to a Sept. 22 press release.

“This year’s rankings recognize what our students and families already know: Catholic University offers an exceptional education at a real value,” Karna Lozoya, vice president for university communications, said in the release. “A 21-spot jump is a testament to the dedication of our faculty and staff and to the investments we’ve made in academic excellence and student success.”

It can be hard to talk about, as emotions run high on both sides of the debate. As chemical abortion pills become increasingly more accessible to women and girls across the U.S., it raises the question: How do we discuss abortion as Catholics in a charitable and truthful way?

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, said “the manner in which we speak is often more important than the details of what we say.”

“In approaching conversations around abortion, it’s important to acknowledge the woman’s fears,” Pacholczyk said. “It feels like a ‘crisis’ pregnancy as her worries snowball and she asks herself a thousand painful questions: What will my friends think of me if they find out? Will this make it impossible to finish college? I feel so alone, ashamed, and abandoned — why isn’t my boyfriend here to support me?”

“Acknowledging the woman’s fears by using sympathetic language can help open up a space of dialogue with advocates of abortion, as we seek to remind them of what a better response to an unexpected pregnancy should really look like,” Pacholczyk said.

“It should be almost self-evident that it would be better to respond with support and accompaniment in the midst of her turbulent fears, seeking to calm the waters rather than roiling them further by turning to the violence of abortion, which in the final analysis, layers on additional regret and turbulence,” Pacholczyk continued.

“Patience and a real willingness to listen to the person we are engaging with needs to prevail over our desire to try to quickly win the argument,” he added. “It can be helpful to ask calm and reasoned questions to move the discussion forward in place of making dramatic, vociferous, and inflammatory assertions that may serve only to keep the two parties at loggerheads.”

From a pro-life perspective, affirming the unborn child’s dignity is also a fundamental part of the conversation.

“We need to be attentive when it comes to abortion ‘rights’ language, seeking to offer the clarity that there really is no such thing as ‘rights’ that allow someone to directly target and victimize innocent bystanders,” Pacholczyk said. “An unborn child in a crisis pregnancy situation is surely an innocent bystander, as he or she is as much a victim of difficult circumstances as is the mother.”

“The authentic ‘rights’ we should all be able to agree on include the right to receive help in parenting from society as new moms face the daunting and unexpected prospect of caring for and raising a child for the first time,” Pacholczyk said.

Camille Pauley, who heads Healing the Culture, a Catholic organization that educates people on how to engage with difficult cultural issues like abortion, spoke to EWTN News about what it means to show charity to another person.

“Charity is to act for the good of the other person, who is made in the image and likeness of God,” Pauley said. “Persons who commit the evil of abortion are not ‘demonic monsters’ or ‘soulless savages.’ These are words that do damage to society and to ourselves when we use them.’

“Persons who have fallen into the sin of abortion are human beings who are either spiritually lost or have been deeply wounded, abandoned, betrayed, deceived, and sometimes abused or coerced,” Pauley said.

“At the same time, we shouldn’t confuse charity towards persons with charity toward abortion,” Pauley continued. “‘Abortion,’ in the common usage of the term, is evil, wrong, and sinful. It hurts women and unjustly kills an intrinsically valuable and sacred human being who has an inalienable right to life. To speak these words is an act of charity when they are used for the good of the other person.”

She emphasized that the woman and her baby shouldn’t be pitted against one another.

“The language we use must affirm that the interests of the woman are the same as the interests of the child,” Pauley said. “The pro-abortion movement always wants to separate the mother and her child and pit them against one another. We must never do this. Choosing to protect her child’s life is in the best interest of the child and his mother.”

Why does the Catholic Church teach that life is sacred?

In St. John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”), which continues to inform the pro-life cause today, the late pope connects the teaching on the sacredness of life to how man relates to God.

“Every individual, precisely by reason of the mystery of the Word of God who was made flesh, is entrusted to the maternal care of the Church,” JPII wrote. “Therefore every threat to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the Churchʼs very heart.”

He noted that the decision to have an abortion is “often tragic and painful” for the woman. However, serious reasons still “can never justify the deliberate killing of an innocent human being,” he added.

But the responsibility doesn’t fall on the woman alone. The responsibility for any abortion extends throughout society, from the mother and father, to legislators, and to systems in place that prop up abortion, according to John Paul II, who went on to say in the encyclical that abortion goes against the right to life, which is foundational to human society, and criticized the language of “abortion rights.”

“To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others,” John Paul II wrote. “This is the death of true freedom.”

He emphasized that believers have a particular call to defending unborn children, as the incarnation of Jesus Christ, he said, reveals ”the incomparable value of every human person.”

He continued: “[Life is] a sacred reality entrusted to us, to be preserved with a sense of responsibility and brought to perfection in love and in the gift of ourselves to God and to our brothers and sisters.”

This year’s theme: ‘Mary, Mother of Life’

The U.S. bishops, in their Respect Life Month resources, point to Mary as “our model for upholding the sanctity of all human life” — highlighting this year’s theme: “Mary, Mother of Life.”

“In becoming the mother of Jesus, Mary becomes the mother of life,” the bishops wrote. “Mary’s acceptance in this unforeseen moment demonstrates how each of us must welcome the gift of new human life, even when that gift is unexpected or calls us to make sacrifices.”

The bishops encouraged Catholics to pray a Respect Life Novena from October 22–30. For more resources about Respect Life month, visit: https://www.respectlife.org/.

The bishops said their money grew mostly because long-term investments did well in 2025. Altogether, the investment pool made a 15.2% return, said Chieko Noguchi, a spokesperson for the conference. The conference ended 2025 with an increase in net assets from $340.4 million to $383.9 million.

"The increase in net assets was due primarily to the performance of the long-term investment pool in 2025, which received $16.3 million in investment income (interest income and dividends) as well as an increase in unrealized gains of $27.2 million due to positive market performance,” Noguchi said.

The USCCB’s financial audits for 2024 and 2025 showed total operating expenses fell about $100 million because migrant program activity contracted. Funding for refugee programs fell from $180.46 million to $72.23 million.

The $43.6 million increase in net assets represents a nearly 13% increase, according to the audit, which reflects the USCCB’s financial position as of Dec. 31, 2025.

The USCCB said in its audit that it did not renew its refugee‑resettlement agreements after the federal suspension of grants “rendered the programs financially unsustainable leading to a reduction in conference staff whose positions were funded by those programs.”

According to the audit, the reduction of the refugee program and its staff contributed to a decrease in the conference’s overall operational expenses, which declined from $281.9 million in 2024 to $189.6 million in 2025.

Overall, the USCCB’s financial position has strengthened over the past four years, with its net assets growing from $268.4 million in 2022 to $304.9 million in 2023, according to its 2022-2023 audit, to $340.4 million in 2024, and $383.9 in 2025.

The year-to-year increase in net assets comes despite fluctuations in the conference’s investment portfolio. In 2022, the USCCB reported $75.4 million in unrealized investment losses. The portfolio returned to gains in the following years, with the conference reporting $35.4 million in unrealized investment gains in 2023, $11.6 million in 2024, and $27.2 million in 2025.

National collections declined slightly from $82.3 million in 2024 to $80.6 million in 2025, while national collections program expenses increased by $9.1 million, according to the report. However, national collections are “restricted by the donor for a specific purpose” and therefore do not play a role in offsetting the conference’s loss of refugee program funding.

The report, published on Sept. 30, found evidence that “more than 270 Catholic clerics abused nearly 1,000 children over the course of a century in the Dioceses of Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester,” state Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said.

Leaders of the three dioceses failed to respond to allegations of abuse over the years, the attorney general said; diocesan leadership often transferred accused priests to other parishes and “failed to consistently report allegations to law enforcement,” according to the report.

Among the contributing factors to the abuse epidemic, according to the report, was a “culture of reverence and indulgence” toward priests.

Around mid-century, priests “were viewed as holy, and their attention or attachment to a particular family was encouraged,” the report says. These social dynamics “allowed offending priests easy access to victims.”

The investigation was launched in 2019 and involved more than 300,000 pages of documentation as well as interviews with more than 100 people, including victims of child sex abuse.

The inquiry is similar to those that have been undertaken in other states, including in Michigan, where the state’s attorney general has periodically released reports on the seven dioceses there.

The Massachusetts report covers every diocese in the state except the Archdiocese of Boston. That archdiocese has been subject to lengthy scrutiny after having been among the earliest subjects of abuse inquiries starting in 2002.

The attorney general’s report said the three dioceses “often intentionally did not document child sexual abuse allegations or used coded and euphemistic language to conceal them.” The office said it “worked diligently to create as complete a record as possible” of abuse in the dioceses.

As with similar reports in other states, the Massachusetts investigation mostly concerned abuse that was decades old. The “majority of known abuse” occurred “before 2002,” prior to major public awareness of the clergy abuse scandal, the report said.

The report expressed hope that the investigation would “result in a stronger commitment to a safer environment within these dioceses.” It thanked the child abuse victims who came forward to contribute to the inquiry.

It was not immediately clear how many of the instances of abuse in the report had already been identified and/or reported by the three dioceses. A query to the state attorney general’s office was not immediately returned.

Dioceses apologize

Both the Worcester Diocese and the Fall River Diocese had issued responses to the report by the afternoon of Sept. 30 in which they apologized to victims of sexual abuse. A statement from the Diocese of Worcester said it would study the report to “identify any additional improvements” it could make to its child safety policies.

The diocese noted that the report found the “vast majority of cases” occurred decades ago and that it had significantly updated its screening procedures in the years since.

Fall River Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, SDV, meanwhile, said in a statement that he was “filled with sorrow” over the details of the report.

The diocese has developed a “culture of protection” to ensure children are not abused, including reporting abuse allegations to law enforcement and enhancing safety protocols, the bishop said.

Da Cunha said that during his time as bishop he has “learned much about the best practices for protecting children and vulnerable adults in our care.”

Church leaders in New York and Illinois have won multiple victories in recent weeks in federal district court after bringing suits against the newly launched suicide regimes in those states.

In New York, Rockville Centre Bishop John Barres and a coalition of four communities of religious sisters won a victory in July when U.S. District Judge Anne Nardacci said the state would be barred from enforcing its new suicide law against the Catholic plaintiffs while their federal suit played out.

Two separate lawsuits in Illinois, meanwhile, have also brought relief to Catholic objectors. U.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama said in August that Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki and several other plaintiffs, including Christian doctors and a Lutheran care home, would not have to abide by the state’s suicide law and help patients kill themselves.

In September, meanwhile, Valderrama ruled again in favor of a coalition of religious plaintiffs, including the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm as well as the Little Sisters of the Poor, all of whom had brought suit against the Illinois law.

In all three cases, the plaintiffs only won temporary reprieves meant to forestall enforcement of the law while the lawsuits continue through the federal court system.

And though advocates hailed the rulings, Chicago archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich on Sept. 11 argued that the Illinois law should be struck down “permanently.”

“[T]he Church’s objection to this statute is not an attempt to impose Catholic teaching on non-Catholics,” the archbishop said at the time. Rather, “it is an effort to stop the State from compelling Catholic health care providers to violate their conscience.”

Church strongly opposes assisted suicide, euthanasia

The Catholic Church has been at the forefront of efforts to roll back assisted suicide in countries around the world in recent years. The controversial practice, which is growing in popularity around the world, allows doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication to patients who wish to end their own lives.

Advocates of assisted suicide usually argue that the laws only allow doctors to help kill adult patients who are terminally ill and likely to die in the very near future. But in many cases where the practice has been introduced it has expanded to include broader classes of patients.

In the Netherlands in 2024, for instance, a physically healthy 29-year-old woman was allowed to kill herself with a doctor’s help on the grounds that she was suffering from depression. This year, the country recorded its first euthanasia of a child under the age of 12.

In Canada, meanwhile, about 100,000 people have taken their own lives since the country legalized assisted suicide in 2016. Thousands of those individuals reportedly did not have a “reasonably foreseeable death,” but doctors were allowed to help kill them anyway.

Numerous U.S. states have legalized the practice in recent years. New York’s and Illinois’ respective suicide laws went into effect this year.

In both cases the religious objectors were suing to stop the state from forcing them to promote assisted suicide. While narrow opt-out laws mean the Catholic care providers are not obligated to actively facilitate the specific act of suicide, the state laws require them to participate in the suicide regime in various other ways, including touting the alleged benefits of taking one’s own life.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing both the Springfield and Rockville Centre lawsuits, says that refusing to participate in such rules “invites significant fines, license revocation, or even time behind bars.”

In a statement to EWTN News, Paprocki said the “heart of the Catholic Church’s healthcare ministry” is “the healing work of Christ — to stand with the suffering, to comfort the dying, and to affirm the God-given dignity of every human life.”

The Illinois suicide law “undermines that mission by forcing Catholic hospitals and those who serve in them to push death onto their most vulnerable patients,” the bishop said.

“We must be free to serve the sick and the dying according to our faith, not according to the state’s mandate,” he added.

The lawsuits are continuing their way through the federal courts and may reach the Supreme Court in time. Meanwhile, Catholic leaders continue to denounce the practice of assisted suicide, including Pope Leo XIV, who during a visit to France in September described the practice as “false compassion.”

“It is impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral,” the Holy Father said.

Parolin spoke Sept. 25 as an honoree of CAPP-USA, the U.S. arm of the Fondazione Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice, a Vatican foundation that promotes Catholic social teaching and was established by St. John Paul II in 1993.

Among those present at the event were the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.) Mike Waltz, Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, and the Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N., Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis, who delivered the evening’s benediction.

Parolin said: “In the light of the Gospel, each generation must read the signs of its own times.”

Citing Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Parolin said modern technology is not humanity’s enemy but that dignity belongs to people, not systems or algorithms. He also recalled Rerum Novarum, the encyclical Pope Leo XIII penned in 1891 as the Church’s response to the industrial revolution and which laid the foundation for Catholic social teaching.

“In a world that builds towers, build places of encounter,” Parolin challenged his listeners. “In a world connected online and disconnected offline, be people of presence. In a world asking whether we can remain human, answer with the witness of your lives.”

He told attendees the foundation matters because its members are meant to be “bridge builders between the encyclicals … and the decisions made in daily life.”

Fragmentation and loneliness

Parolin said people “are more connected than any generation in history, and yet many of us are lonelier than ever.” Exchanging information instantly but struggling to encounter one another as human beings has led to fragmentation, he said, and families, communities, and nations are “divided into camps that no longer even speak the same language.”

He noted Pope Leo’s description of this moment in the opening lines of Magnifica Humanitas, saying: “We can either construct a new tower of Babel or build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.”

‘A fragmented world is a searching world’

Regarding the spiritual hunger many modern people are feeling, he said restlessness, especially among the young, is evidence that our hearts are made for God and cannot rest until we rest in him, citing St. Augustine.

“A fragmented world is also a searching world,” he noted.

“The human person is not self-made, but receives; he is a being created for relationship,” he said. “Leo expressed the hope that the world will come to recognize the human heart is the place where God desires to dwell.”

The Church’s social doctrine is “itself an expression of the spiritual life,” Parolin said, and results in a faith that becomes real “concern for the worker, the family, the poor, and the seeking of the common good.”

Freedom and pluralism not to blame, Parolin says

On freedom and pluralism, he rejected blaming “too much freedom” or “too many voices.”

The Church defends “freedom as a gift inseparable from human dignity,” he said, noting the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on “religious freedom as a right found in the very nature of the human person.”

But, he said, “freedom detached from truth and responsibility for others turns against itself.” Freedom, in the Christian vision, “is not the capacity to choose anything whatsoever. It is the capacity to choose the good.”

Authentic pluralism, he said, rests on dignity, the common good, solidarity, and subsidiarity. “We should respect the family, communities, and institutions through which people flourish,” he urged.

The next day, Sept. 26, Parolin addressed the opening of the 81st U.N. General Assembly, whose theme is “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations That Delivers for All.”

In a Sept. 29 teleconference, the group also revealed that recently retired Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw will give the keynote address at the march, taking place on Jan. 22, 2027.

“The truth cannot be denied and that’s why we have kept our message so simple and bold this year,” said Hayden Sledge, chief of staff for the March for Life.

“Truth doesn’t shout. It’s just there, waiting to be seen,” she said. “Truth has a way of bringing people together. That’s why for more than 50 years we’ve kept showing up to defend that truth. Some things remain true no matter the culture, politics, or the year. The truth is pro-life.”

The national march occurs every year near the anniversary of the legalization of abortion nationwide in the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. The event continues despite Roe’s reversal by the court in 2022 as abortion remains legal in dozens of U.S. states. In all, some 63 million babies have been aborted since the Roe decision, according to pro-life groups.

During the press conference, the committee shared the details of the expected program and the intentional decision behind the chosen theme.

Last year’s theme was “Life Is a Gift.”

“Last year, our theme spoke to the heart,” Sledge said. “This year, we are speaking to the head and making a clear statement about the truth at the heart of our mission, because truth does not change with an election or due to politics, or current trends. It’s unchanging. That’s why our theme is ‘The Truth Is Pro-Life.’”

Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award winner and the 2014 National League MVP, operates the nonprofit group Kershaw’s Challenge, which partners with other charities to improve the lives of children in need living in Los Angeles, Dallas, Zambia, and the Dominican Republic.

“Iʼm excited to get to be the speaker for the 2027 March for Life,” said Kershaw, while holding his 9-month-old daughter, Chloe, the youngest of his five children. “She’s excited for us to be there, too, and we can’t wait.”

In keeping with this year’s theme, the March for Life organizing committee is inviting individuals to ask “the hard questions” about human life when they interact with those outside the pro-life community.

“Today, itʼs hard to figure out what the truth is. Not because it isnʼt there, but because of the distractions. But sometimes all you have to do is look closer, get rid of the noise, the chaos, the confusion, and see whatʼs really there,” Sledge said.

The fourth annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage drew an estimated 4,500 people, with tens of thousands of others joining via livestream broadcast.

Hosted by the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph, the event included opportunities for joining in Eucharistic adoration and receiving the sacrament of reconciliation.

“Every year the pilgrimage grows. Every year, more people join us and every year those prayers are lifted up to heaven with greater enthusiasm,” said Dominican Father Patrick Briscoe, promoter general for social communication of the Province of St. Joseph, which extends from New England to Virginia to Ohio.

“It’s such a beautiful event,” said pilgrim Lauren Rodriguez, who traveled from Miami. “This is the second time I’ve come and this year I brought my husband. I just thought it was so impactful to see so much beauty, prayer, and truth in the preaching. It’s incredibly peaceful for as many activities that there are throughout the day.”

In preparation for the event, an estimated 100,000 Catholics participated in a nine-month novena, beginning on Jan. 31 and ending on Sept. 26, according to Dominican Father John Paul Kern, executive director of the Dominican Friars Foundation.

“I think Our Lady brings us closer to him and reveals something to us about her son in a very special way with him here at this event,” Kern said.

Dominican Father Peter John Cameron, the event’s principal speaker, described the rosary as a gift and a “chain that unites people to God.”

“The rosary is something truly unique and indescribably precious,” he told EWTN News. “Because more than just a form of prayer, the rosary is a relationship. The rosary is a dynamic experience of our sonship, of our daughtership, in God.”

“For someone like me who’s so busy, and so many people are busy, it’s a day dedicated to prayer, to soak it in, receive the graces,” Rodriguez told EWTN News. “You meet so many wonderful people from all over. It really is reaching so many people and touching so many hearts.”

The Catholic Church dedicates the entire month of October to the most holy rosary and celebrates the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on Oct. 7.

The two monuments are located at El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the historical center of the Southern California city, marking its founding in 1781.

Los Angeles resident Jack Gerritsen sued the city government claiming that the displays violate the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution. Gerritsen identifies himself as a “nonbeliever” in the suit and claims the monuments make him feel “excluded” in the public space.

A U.S. district court ruled against Gerritsen, after which he appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. On Sept. 29, the religious liberty law firm Becket announced that the appeals court had also ruled against Gerritsen.

The plaintiff “failed to establish the requirements” to justify removing the monument, the appeals court said, including failing to establish that he would “suffer irreparable harm” if the monuments were left in place.

He further failed to affirm that removing the monuments would be “in the public interest,” the court noted.

The ruling comes after a group of merchants located on Olvera Street near the monuments asked to join the lawsuit in defense of the public displays.

Among them was cafe owner Edward Flores, who said that a cultural display such as the cross and Nativity helps “[ennoble] Americans across all ethnicities, faiths, cultures, and generations to take pride in their own contributions and to see more clearly their future potential.”

The appeals court ultimately ruled against the efforts of the merchants to join the suit, arguing that their participation in the legal proceeding was moot given the court’s dismissal of Gerritsen’s request.

But Andrea Butler, a lawyer at Becket who represented the merchants in their request, said in a news release that the ruling was “common sense.”

“Los Angeles belongs to people of every faith and none, and its public square naturally bears the marks of that diversity,” Butler said.

The case will be sent back to lower district court following the appeals ruling, according to Becket. The law firm said the monuments will remain “while courts move toward a final decision in the case.”

The ruling from the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Oklahoma comes more than a year after a Catholic charter school lost a similar lawsuit seeking to be included in Oklahoma’s charter school funding.

In his decision, U.S. District Judge David Russell said the state may not “single out religious schools for exclusion” from public charter funding “solely because of their religious character.”

The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board may not deny funding to the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation, Russell held, though the order only applies so long as the lawsuit continues through the federal court system.

The Oklahoma government requires charter schools to identify as “nonsectarian” and not be affiliated with religious groups. That rule was previously challenged by a Catholic institution, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which sought funding from the charter school board and which sued the state in 2023 over being excluded from the state program.

That suit drew the backing of the U.S. bishops as well as numerous states who advocated expanded educational opportunities. Yet the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately declined to issue a ruling in the case after the court’s justices were split in the dispute, leaving the school without charter funding.

It’s unclear whether or not the Jewish charter school dispute will affect the status of the Catholic charter school. But in his ruling Russell said the denial of the school’s application on religious grounds constituted a “concrete” and “actual” injury.

A “long line of Supreme Court precedent” supports the school’s position that the denial of its public funding violates the U.S. Constitution, the judge said.

Daniel Chen, an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the charter school, said in a press release that Oklahoma’s ban on religious charter funding was “destined to fail.”

“The Constitution doesn’t permit the state to welcome every kind of charter school except a religious one,” Chen said.

The state has 30 days to appeal to the federal Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, Becket said.

In the culture of the Church, Michael is often accompanied by his two fellow archangels — Sts. Gabriel and Raphael — with the three forming a phalanx of protection, healing, and petition for those who ask for their intercession. The Church celebrates the three archangels with a joint feast day on Sept. 29.

St. Michael the Archangel

St. Michael the Archangel is hailed in the Book of Daniel as “the great prince who has charge of [God’s] people.”

Michael Aquilina, the executive vice president and trustee of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology in Steubenville, Ohio, described Michael among angels as “the one most often named — and most often invoked — and most often seen in history-changing apparitions.”

Devotion to Michael, Aquilina told EWTN News, “has been with the Church from the beginning. And Michael has been with God’s people since before the beginning of the Church.”

Michael’s history in the Bible is depicted through Daniel, in Jude (in which he battles Satan for possession of Moses’ body), and in Revelation as he “wag[es] war with the dragon” alongside his fellow angels.

Michael, Aquilina said, was “a supremely important character who was there from the beginning of the story.” Rabbinic tradition holds that Michael was at the center of many of the great biblical dramas even if not explicitly mentioned.

He was an early subject of veneration in the Church, though Aquilina noted that the Reformation led to a steep decline in devotion to the angels — until the end of the 19th century, when Michael began an “amazing comeback journey” in the life of the Church.

Following a vision of Satan “running riot” on the planet, “Pope Leo [XIII] composed three prayers to St. Michael, ranging from short to long,” Aquilina said. “The brief one, he commanded, should be prayed at the end of every Mass.”

This was a regular feature of the Mass until the Vatican II era, after which it came to an end — though Pope John Paul II in 1994 urged Catholics to make the prayer a regular part of their lives.

“St. Michael is there for us in the day of battle, which is every day,” Aquilina said.

The St. Michael Prayer: St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil / May God rebuke him, we humbly pray / And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the divine power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

St. Gabriel the Archangel

Gabriel appears regularly in Scripture as a messenger of God’s word, both in the Old and New Testaments. Daniel identifies Gabriel as a “man” who came “to give [him] insight and understanding,” relaying prophetic answers to Daniel’s entreaties to God.

In the New Testament, Luke relays Gabriel’s appearances to both Zechariah and the Virgin Mary. At the former, he informs the priest that his wife, Elizabeth, will soon conceive a child; at the latter he informs Mary herself that she will do the same. The two children in question, of course, were respectively John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.

Christian tradition further associates Gabriel with the apostle Paul’s reference in his First Letter to the Thessalonians to the “archangel’s call” and “the sound of the trumpet of God.”

“Judgment will begin with the archangel’s call and the sound of the horn,” Aquilina told EWTN News. “Thus we hear often of Gabriel’s trumpet.”

Media workers in particular have “good professional reasons to go to Gabriel,” Aquilina said.

“Since he is the Bible’s great communicator — the great teller of good news — he is the natural patron of broadcasters and all those who work in electronic media,” he said.

“For the same reason, he’s the patron saint of preachers ... but also of postal workers, diplomats, and messengers.”

The St. Gabriel Prayer: O Blessed Archangel Gabriel, we beseech thee, do thou intercede for us at the throne of divine mercy in our present necessities, that as thou didst announce to Mary the mystery of the Incarnation, so through thy prayers and patronage in heaven we may obtain the benefits of the same, and sing the praise of God forever in the land of the living. Amen.

St. Raphael the Archangel

Lesser-known among the three great archangels, Raphael’s mission from God “is not obvious to the casual reader” of the Bible, Aquilina said. Yet his story, depicted in the Book of Tobit, is “something unique in the whole Bible.” In other depictions of angels, they come to Earth only briefly, to deliver a message or to help God’s favored people in some way.

“Raphael is different,” Aquilina said. “He stays around for the whole story, and by the end he’s become something more than an angel ... he’s become a friend.”

In Tobit, Raphael accompanies Tobias, the son of the book’s namesake, as he travels to retrieve money left by his father in another town, helping him along the way and arranging for his marriage to Sarah.

The biblical account “has in every generation provided insight and consolation to the devout,” Aquilina said.

Notably, Raphael deftly uses the natural world to work God’s miracles: “What we would ordinarily call catastrophes — blindness, multiple widowhood, destitution, estrangement — all these become providential channels of grace by the time the threads of the story are all wound up in the end.”

“Raphael is patron of many kinds of people,” Aquilina said. “Of course, he’s the patron of singles in search of a mate — and those in search of a friend. He is the patron of pharmacists because he provided the salve of healing. He is a patron for anyone in search of a cure.”

He is also the patron saint of blind people, travelers, sick people, and youth.

“Raphael’s story,” Aquilina said, “remains a model for those who would enjoy the friendship of the angels.”

Prayer to St. Raphael: St. Raphael, of the glorious seven who stand before the throne of him who lives and reigns, angel of health, the Lord has filled your hand with balm from heaven to soothe or cure our pains. Heal or cure the victim of disease. And guide our steps when doubtful of our ways. Amen.

This story was first published on Sept. 29, 2023, and has been updated.