When a Loaves and Fishes meal site at St. Gabriel the Archangel in Hopkins closed in late 2025, it marked an abrupt end to a familiar source of support for many in the community. For St. Gabriel and Our Lady of Grace (OLG) in Edina, the closure became something more: a moment of discernment and a call to act.

Rather than focusing on what was lost, leaders and volunteers at OLG and St. Gabriel asked how they could continue serving their neighbors in a way that was sustainable and rooted in their identity as a Eucharistic people.

The answer took shape in early 2026 with the launch of Our Lady’s Table, a parish-led ministry offering weekly meals with a renewed sense of dignity, connection and Catholic hospitality. What began as a response to disruption has grown into a collaborative, faith-driven effort that reflects the parishes shared mission.

A turning point

For years, OLG and St. Gabriel were active participants in the Minneapolis-based nonprofit Loaves and Fishes network, which was founded in 1982 to provide healthy meals to Minnesotans in areas of greatest need. Starting with one site in Minneapolis and one in St. Paul, Loaves and Fishes has grown to include sites in more than a dozen counties around the Twin Cities and rural Minnesota, according to its website.

St. Gabriel’s commercial-grade kitchen made it an essential host site in the Hopkins area and OLG volunteers regularly served at multiple locations throughout Minneapolis.

“In May 2025, OLG relaunched serving through Loaves and Fishes at St. Gabriel’s,” said Cosette DeCesare, pastoral care and outreach coordinator at Our Lady of Grace. “We served there until November, when Loaves and Fishes abruptly closed the site.”

The closure was part of a broader restructuring effort. “The decision to close some of our sites was not made lightly,” said Mel McCormick, director of operations for Loaves and Fishes. “Rising food costs, increased operational expenses and growing demand have all taken a toll. To ensure long-term sustainability, we had to make strategic adjustments.”

For the parishes, the change created both a gap and an opportunity. Without a third-party organization coordinating meals, they were prompted to consider what they could accomplish on their own.

“We decided to pivot and respond so as to fill the void,” DeCesare said. “We started a new program and named it Our Lady’s Table.”

The shift was significant. No longer simply hosting and volunteering in a program, the parishes became its architects — shaping a ministry that reflected their values, resources and vision.

Building something new

At St. Gabriel, pastor Father Paul Haverstock had long considered what a fully parish-led initiative might look like. The closure of the Loaves and Fishes site, though sudden, felt like a moment of clarity.

“It feels good as a Catholic church to serve those who are in need,” he said. “It’s a huge part of the Gospel to meet people’s material needs, just like it is to meet their spiritual needs. While we were always grateful for Loaves and Fishes, there were limitations. I had often thought that if they were ever not here, it would be meaningful to create something in-house where we could also share the faith more explicitly.”

That opportunity arrived quickly. “They reached out on a Friday and said Monday would be their last day,” he recalled.

Within months, the parishes organized a new model. Launched in February 2026, Our Lady’s Table now serves weekly to-go meals every Tuesday evening from St. Gabriel’s kitchen.

Each week, volunteers prepare between 50 and 75 meals. “Typically, we make a hearty casserole and a side salad,” DeCesare said. “We include soft fruit and a cookie, and we also prepare PB&J (peanut butter and jelly) sandwiches for guests to take with them for the next day.”

Much of the food is sourced through Food To People, a Catholic-run organization dedicated to rescuing high-quality surplus food and redirecting it to those in need. This partnership helps ensure that meals are cost-effective and environmentally responsible. Additional support comes from local Catholic-owned businesses, including a weekly donation of fresh-baked cookies from ChunkChunk Ice Cream in Hopkins.

The operation reflects the two parishes’ shared commitment. Volunteers from OLG and St. Gabriel alternate weeks and frequently serve side-by-side, creating a rhythm of collaboration that has strengthened relationships across parish lines.

“The prep, package and distribute model is familiar,” DeCesare said. “But the difference is that our parishioners are building and running this from start to finish. There’s a real sense of ownership.”

That sense of local initiative is something McCormick of Loaves and Fishes finds encouraging. “We are incredibly glad to see other organizations move into these spaces,” she said. “The goal has never been ownership — it’s impact.”

More than a meal

While the program emphasizes efficiency and accessibility, its leaders are equally focused on fostering connection.

“Food access isn’t just about calories,” McCormick said. “It’s about reliability, safety and relationships. Guests build trust with the people serving them.”

That relational dimension is central to Our Lady’s Table. “Even in brief exchanges, there’s an opportunity for connection,” DeCesare said. “It becomes more than distribution — it becomes encounter.”

For Father Kevin Finnegan, pastor of Our Lady of Grace, that encounter is essential to the ministry’s long-term vision.

“We need to find ways for more people to serve together, because that in itself is good for the soul,” he said. Reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic years, he added, “We got used to distributing food for people to take home and eat alone. That was necessary at the time, but now we want something more. We want people to know one another and share in something together.”

Ultimately, he said, the goal is to draw people out of isolation and into community. “We want to bring people into the family of God.”

A distinctly Catholic effort

While Our Lady’s Table builds on the legacy of past partnerships, it has developed a distinct identity as a Catholic-led initiative. From its sourcing partnerships to its emphasis on hospitality and human dignity, the ministry reflects a holistic understanding of service.

For Father Haverstock, it is a natural expression of the Church’s mission. “The Catholic Church has always met material needs as a way of opening the door to spiritual care,” he said. “It’s about being the presence of Christ in the neighborhood. When we feed the hungry, we are tending to the body of Christ.”

Clarity of purpose has inspired strong support from both parishes. “Volunteer slots are filled months in advance,” DeCesare said. “The response has been immediate and generous.”

The collaboration has also created momentum for future growth. Leaders from both parishes hope to expand the initiative and invite additional parish communities to participate.

Looking ahead

As the ministry continues to develop, its leaders are already imagining what comes next. One priority is moving beyond a strictly to-go model toward opportunities for shared meals and deeper fellowship.

“I’d love to see it grow into something where people can sit down together,” Father Finnegan said. “There’s something powerful about sharing a meal in the same space.”

DeCesare echoed that hope. “We’re working toward offering a regular, in-person community meal alongside the to-go service,” she said.

For Father Haverstock, the long-term vision is even broader. “I’d love to see us serving meals most days of the week,” he said. “A place where people can gather, share food and hear a message of encouragement. That’s what a parish is meant to be — a place where everyone is fed.”

Even in its early months, Our Lady’s Table has made a tangible impact. Volunteers regularly hear from guests who are grateful to see the return of consistent meal service in the area.

“We’ve lost count of how many people have thanked us,” DeCesare said. “And the neighborhood children are especially excited about the cookies.”

Those small moments of gratitude point to something larger: a community responding together to a shared need. “Hunger is a community-wide challenge,” McCormick said. “It requires nonprofits, volunteers, donors, neighbors and faith groups all working together.”

In the case of Our Lady’s Table, that collaboration has taken on a distinctly local and deeply personal form — one rooted in faith, sustained by partnership and focused on encounter.

What began as an unexpected closure has become a new expression of Catholic life in action. As the ministry grows, Father Haverstock said, its guiding principle remains simple and enduring: to ensure that all who come are welcomed, nourished and known.

On April 7, Archbishop Bernard Hebda told nearly 4,000 educators at the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) convention that Catholic education continues to form people throughout their lives. He said this while presiding at the opening Mass of the April 7-9 gathering at the Minneapolis Convention Center.  

“It’s magnificent that you would always come together … to not only be with one another, but also to try to improve your skills as teachers and to have a faith encounter that then sends you back energized to spread the Gospel,” Archbishop Hebda said.  

In reference to the Gospel readings from that day, in which Mary Magdalene encounters the risen Christ in “the most difficult of situations,” Archbishop Hebda said the teachers and administrators he encountered through the years in Catholic schools and parishes are “women and men who consistently find the strength to be present in the most difficult of situations.” 

“We saw this here this past year, not only at Annunciation, but also as so many of our families were impacted by (Operation Metro Surge) here in the Twin Cities,” Archbishop Hebda said, referring to a fatal shooting Aug. 27 during an all-school Mass at Annunciation church in Minneapolis, and to more than two months of heightened federal immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota that began Dec. 1. The immigration efforts impacted schools, churches and businesses and led to thousands of people protesting in the streets. Two people from Minneapolis were shot by federal agents and died. 

“Our teachers were heroic (amidst) those difficult times. … I know that you’re only able to do that because of your deep love for Jesus, your intimate relationship with him. It’s that relationship that enables you to recognize him in the most difficult of situations,” the archbishop said. 

Catholic educators have the opportunity to touch the hearts of children and their family members, he said. When the risen Christ called Mary Magdalene by name, there was an intimacy, he continued.  

“It’s an intimacy that that you share with your students and your families,” the archbishop said. “Did you hear what Mary’s first response was when she hasn’t recognized who this gardener is? She says, ‘Teacher, teacher.’ That’s a beautiful response anytime somebody has touched us in such a way that we know that Jesus is present. Each time that your students refer to you as teacher, be reminded of how it is that Jesus was teacher for Mary Magdalene. Jesus is teacher for all of us.” 

Increasing numbers of high school students around the United States are entering the Church, Archbishop Hebda said.  

“My brothers and sisters, it’s because we are willing to be there, I suspect, with those students and their families, and to speak their name in a way that helps them to understand that they’re seen and loved.” 

Sister Mary Grace, a Sister of Life in Toronto, was the closing keynote speaker April 9, the last day of the convention. She said that one teacher standing in the front of a classroom with the knowledge of Christ can bring more “hope and joy into this world than the most dynamic and savvy influencers.” 

“The children need you; they need your presence,” Sister Mary Grace said. “They need your attentiveness, your goodness, your faith.” 

Sister Mary Grace recalled a teacher she knew who got down on one knee each day and attentively listened to a young student talk about a slug she saw every day before class. 

“For months, (the student) only had a slug story to tell,” Sister Mary Grace said. The teacher bent down each time and listened. 

“It wasn’t until about a year (later) that (the student) came in and said something totally different, and it wasn’t about the slug,” Sister Mary Grace said. She “was now ready to trust her teacher with big news. (The student) was being abused, and she was trying to find a person in her life that she could trust. … After the family home, the classroom is the most formative influence in our lives by far.” 

Grateful teachers 

Eileen McGurran attended the convention with other teachers from St. Rose of Lima in Roseville. She has taught adults and children for 30 years and has taught at St. Rose of Lima for 21 years. The keynote speakers, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston April 7 and Sister Mary Grace, inspired McGurran. Bishop Cozzens stressed that the job of Catholic educators is to invite people to let their hearts be healed by an encounter with the heart of Christ, the one who reveals what it means to be human, the “God who became human to heal our humanity.” 

To invite others, Bishop Cozzens said, teachers must know their own hearts in encounters with the Lord.  

“As a teacher, the messages of relationships?resonated,” McGurran said. “First, I need to have a relationship with Christ.?Then I am better capable of being witnesses for my students. Sharing personal experiences of God’s love, sharing the Gospel message, and having conversations about God are so important in helping my students to build their relationship?with Jesus; to know they are loved!” 

Sister Mary Grace said people are hardwired to find meaning in every moment because “deep down, we know that we matter.” 

Meaning cannot be manufactured, Sister Mary Grace said, and “God provides even before we can perceive our needs.” 

“I think that the issue of our times isn’t so much about doing less or more in our workplaces, but that we’ve attempted to live a subtle agreement to the lie that we’re worthless, that we don’t really matter, that there isn’t really more, that this is as good as it gets. … The opposite of hope isn’t despair; it’s cynicism. … The dark chapter does not have the right to conclude our stories,” she said. 

Catholic educators can offer children a safe place and an encounter with divine love first received in the educators’ hearts, Sister Mary Grace said, “giving (the children) the love that they would otherwise be deprived (of).” 

“I don’t think there’s ever been more of a need for real teachers, teachers (who) believe, teachers (who) … not only teach but testify to the life of Jesus Christ and the real difference he makes,” she said. “Far greater than the efforts of the finest human progress, incomparable to the proclaimed feats of (artificial intelligence) that are helping us, every single child, every single human heart, needs another person. They need a real person of the world, just like you, in their real world, in their normal life, showing up day after day, who refuse to give up on the goodness in them.” 

This is the second NCEA Convention McGurran attended. The last time was in 2010, also in Minneapolis. 

“It was nice to have it local once again,” she said in an email. “The convention was packed with so many great options that it was often hard to choose which classes I would take. … The NCEA convention is a wonderful resource for Catholic educators.?It brings so many of us together, to learn from each other, make connections, and celebrate the?Eucharist each day.?Prayer is so powerful.?Nearly 4,000 people with a common passion, in one place at the same time really provided a sense of camaraderie.” 

She also enjoyed the variety of session topics, especially classes with tangible strategies for teaching virtue and building discipline.  

“Academically, it was affirmed that early identification and intervention for students who are experiencing challenges is essential,” McGurran said. “I received information for some reliable assessments to assist in this process.” 

David Gottwalt, a teacher at St. Rose of Lima for 33 years, attended with McGurran and other teachers. He admitted that he was skeptical about how meaningful a large gathering like the NCEA convention could be. But “the Holy Spirit works in wondrous ways,” he said.  

“I bring with me new ideas for integrating our Catholic faith into each subject,” Gottwalt said about what he took away from the talks and sessions. “I learned how to incorporate the Catholic touchstones such as sacred Scripture, the lives of the saints, and the virtues into activities in science, social studies and other subjects. I also enjoyed learning how I can help my fifth graders to be responsible and critical thinkers in using artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool to strengthen, not hinder, our Catholic faith.” 

In his classroom, Gottwalt said, he hopes to include more discussions about the virtues and Scripture passages.  

Mary Carlson, a middle school science teacher at St. Joseph in West St. Paul, said the three-day conference helped her realize that being a teacher is a calling more than a career, one that “restores and gives life.” 

“God wants to love the world,” Carlson said. “Not only was it super inspiring that we’re teaching heart-to-heart (relationships) but then (also) increasing our skills. At the end of the day, what it is, is an encounter (with Christ).” 

Carlson said she felt energized about Catholic education, not just for today or tomorrow, but “as it goes on for weeks, years, just that we have been given this great gift of being able to educate in the whole truth of the whole child.” Her experience at the convention was a “beautiful and authentic witness of life with Christ” as a Catholic school teacher. 

“It’s a unique path, and God blesses it abundantly,” she said. “What does it look like to live more vitally? Like at St. Joe’s, we have so much joy. And what I feel at this conference is an invitation to live more deeply.” 

Brian Shriver, a teacher at St. Ambrose in Woodbury, said the conference was a perfect blend of education and the Catholic faith. Particularly, Sister Mary Grace and Bishop Cozzens in their keynote addresses provided useful tips and guidelines that Shriver said he hopes to use in his classroom. 

Susan Stanke, a graduate of St. Rose of Lima, has been a Catholic school teacher there for 27 years, and her children have graduated from the school. While this wasn’t her first NCEA convention, attending this year helped her professional development, she said. 

In one session called “Beauty, Wonder, and the Catholic Classroom,” Stanke said she loved learning how the relationship between art and beauty can translate to the classroom. 

“As we go through our days, as similar as they all might be, we should strive to find the beauty and wonder in our interactions with the children and the overall classroom environment,” Stanke said.  

She said that for her, there are two main reasons to attend the NCEA conference. One is professional development through learning sessions, which is “crucial to keeping up with what is important in a Catholic classroom.” 

Second, she said, “getting the opportunity to meet and learn from other Catholic school teachers from all around the country is hugely beneficial. One thing I am going to implement in my classroom is to always remind myself that while it is sometimes easy to just default to thinking a student has some kind of learning disability, to instead consider other possibilities that child might be experiencing that are causing their behavior. Hearing that at the conference was just a good reminder.” 

Archbishop Hebda said in his homily that it was important work, as a Church, to pass on the faith and assist parents in accepting their responsibility as being the first educators of their children.  

“I’m delighted that you’re here,” Archbishop Hebda said. “It’s particularly significant for us because (we’re) celebrating our 175th anniversary as an archdiocese.” 

The first bishop of St. Paul had the wisdom to recruit the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet to come to Minnesota and open a school, Archbishop Hebda said.  

“It’s 175 years this year, 2026, that we celebrate the anniversary of Catholic education here in this Archdiocese,” he said. “We know brothers and sisters that without that work, that we wouldn’t be the Church that Jesus is asking us to be. Faith isn’t passed on through our genes. It’s only when people like you are willing to give witness to Jesus, willing to be witnesses like Mary Magdalene and those first disciples.  

“When you’re willing to show that Jesus means something to you and affects your worldview, people are going to come to believe the good news that Jesus Christ is risen,” the archbishop said. He is truly risen.” 

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV has warned that the rise of artificial intelligence threatens to change humanity’s relationship with truth, calling on Catholic universities to help form leaders capable of navigating an increasingly digital world with integrity and discernment.

Speaking to students and professors at the Catholic University of Central Africa in Yaoundé, Cameroon April 17, the pope delivered a long address that touched on AI, corruption, the purpose of Catholic higher education, and the Church’s mission to unite faith with reason.

“Like every great historical transformation, this too calls not only for technical competence, but also for a humanistic formation capable of making visible the logic behind economics, embedded biases and forms of power that shape our perception of reality,” the pope told the students and professors, who were gathered in an open-air pavilion festooned in the papal colors yellow and white.

Pope Leo cautioned that some digital environments are “structured to persuade” and carry the risk of replacing genuine human encounter.

“When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality,” the pope said.

“We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another,” he said. “Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread.”

He added: “What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.”

The pope directly addressed the students, drawing a pointed contrast between AI and incarnated reality. “Dear friends, you, however, are real persons!” he said. “Creation itself has a body, a breath, a life to be listened to and safeguarded.”

Pope Leo grounded his remarks in the long tradition of Catholic intellectual life, quoting both St. John Henry Newman’s “The Idea of a Catholic University” and St. John Paul II’s 1990 apostolic constitution “Ex Corde Ecclesiae,” which remains the foundational Church document on Catholic higher education.

The Catholic university, he said, is “‘born from the heart of the Church’ and shares in her mission to proclaim the truth that sets us free,” echoing John Paul II’s text. He emphasized that faith and reason are not opposed, but “support one another” in the pursuit of truth “in all its dimensions.”

“At a time when many in the world seem to be losing their spiritual and ethical points of reference, finding themselves imprisoned in individualism, superficiality and hypocrisy, the university stands out as a privileged place of friendship, cooperation and, at the same time, of interiority and reflection,” Pope Leo emphasized.

He continued: “From its very origins in the Middle Ages, its founders set truth as its goal. Today still, for truth, for, as St. John Henry Newman wrote, ‘All true principles run over with God, all phenomena converge to him.'”

The pope urged Catholic universities to take seriously their “responsibility of the highest order” to shape “minds capable of discernment and hearts ready for love and service.”

Catholic institutions, he said, must prepare “future leaders, public officials, professionals and other actors in society to carry out with integrity the responsibilities entrusted to them” and to situate their work “within an ethical framework at the service of the common good.”

Founded in 1989 by the Association of Episcopal Conferences of Central Africa, the Catholic University of Central Africa has about 5,000 students across multiple campuses, according to students who attended the event. Its students hail from many different African countries, including Chad, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo.

In his speech, Pope Leo also addressed one of the most persistent challenges facing the African continent, calling corruption a “scourge” from which Africa must be freed — a remark that prompted spontaneous cheers and applause from the crowd.

The pope said that awareness of this problem must take root during students’ years of formation, shaped by the “moral rigor, selflessness and coherence of life shown by their educators and teachers.”

Spiritual and human accompaniment, the pope added, are essential to a Catholic university’s identity. Through campus ministry, spiritual formation and moments of reflection, students are “invited to deepen their interior life and to orient their engagement in society in the light of authentic and enduring values.”

“In this way, dear students, you learn to become builders of the future of your respective countries and of a world that is more just and humane,” he said.

“By bearing witness to the truth — especially in the face of the illusions of ideology and passing fashions — you will foster an environment in which academic excellence is naturally united with human uprightness.”

The meeting was part of Pope Leo’s 11-day apostolic visit to the African countries of Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. April 17 was his final day in Cameroon before traveling to Luanda, Angola, April 18.

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Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.

(OSV News) — Time magazine has named Pope Leo XIV to its “100 Most Influential People of 2026” list.

The accolade was announced April 15, with the first U.S.-born pope joining a diverse group of individuals — some famous, some lesser known — distinguished by their contributions as leaders, innovators, icons, artists and pioneers.

The list, well into its third decade, has “no single metric that defines influence,” stated Time editor in chief Sam Jacobs in his overview of the list.

Rather, Jacobs and his team “poll our editors, reporters, and sources around the world, and review the recommendations that are sent to us every day,” with their ultimate selections “led by the stories that are shaping the world each year and the people who write them.”

Each list member was feted on Time’s website with a short reflection from a prominent figure, with filmmaker Martin Scorsese saying in his commentary on Pope Leo that he was “struck by his bravery and his common touch.”

Recalling Pope Francis as “a man I came to know and love as a friend,” Scorsese said Pope Leo “seems to share” the late pope’s “understanding that the church needs to reform itself to retain its moral and spiritual force.”

Like Pope Francis — “the first Pope born outside of Europe since the Middle Ages and the first Jesuit” — Pope Leo is also a pioneer, being “the first North American–born Pope (with a Chicago accent!) and the first Augustinian in 500 years,” wrote Scorsese.

“For many, the church has lost a great deal of moral and spiritual credibility,” he wrote. “Revelations of widespread sexual abuse and financial wrongdoing keep coming up, and many Christians have grown more secular over the years. The church is at a crossroads, and it may once again be remaking itself.”

He noted that “Pope Francis always stressed that the church was not a building or a symbol but the actual teachings of Jesus,” adding, “I believe that Pope Leo shares that view.”

“Like Francis, he seems to be committed to giving the laity a more active role in the leadership of the faith and the practice of charity,” said Scorsese.

He observed that Pope Leo had penned the introduction to a new edition of “The Practice of the Presence of God,” a short book of spiritual insights by a 17th-century French Carmelite friar whose religious name was Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.

Pope Leo has called attention to the book on several occasions, writing in December 2025 that the work, along with the writings of St. Augustine and other books, “is one of the texts that have most shaped my spiritual life” and has “formed me in what the path can be for knowing and loving the Lord.”

“I know the book well,” wrote Scorsese. “A friend gave me a copy a few years ago, and I’ve since passed it along to many others. It offers a model for finding God in daily life, and for taking the church out of buildings, no matter how majestic, and into everyday existence.”

He quoted Pope Leo’s introduction to the work: “All Christian ethics can truly be summed up in this continual calling to mind the fact that God is present: He is here.”

“I’m encouraged by his words,” wrote Scorsese.

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Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.

(OSV News) — The Catholic Church in Costa Rica has expressed concern over an agreement signed by the government and the United States under which the Central American country will receive up to 25 migrants per week deported by Washington.

The first flight, carrying citizens from Albania, Cameroon, China, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya and Morocco, arrived April 11 in San José, according to Costa Rica’s General Directorate of Migration.

The memorandum of understanding, signed in March by outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves — who will step down May 7 and be replaced by President-elect Laura Fernández Delgado — and U.S. envoy Kristi Noem, stipulates that Costa Rica will receive groups of third-country nationals each week.

Each group will be sent to a hotel and will spend the first seven days under the auspices of the International Organization for Migration. After that, it is unclear how the program will continue.

“The church was not consulted by the government before the agreement was signed,” Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Blanco Méndez of San José told OSV News.

Bishop Blanco, who leads the Costa Rican bishops’ conference’s Human Mobility Pastoral Ministry, said that the church has much to contribute to the government when it comes to immigration.

Catholic organizations work directly on the issue, providing support to people traveling north to reach the United States or south to return to their countries of origin after encountering problems with U.S. immigration authorities.

“We can offer not only spiritual assistance, but also help through our immigrant centers, temporary shelters, and so on,” Bishop Blanco said.

The Human Mobility Pastoral Ministry expressed concerns about the process because of a previous experience. In 2025, nearly 200 foreigners were sent by the United States on a plane and housed in a so-called Temporary Migrant Care Center, or CATEM, located in a remote forested area near the border with Panama.

“If it were not for a court ruling that restored their rights, they would probably still be facing adverse conditions,” Father Gustavo Meneses Castro, executive secretary of the Human Mobility Pastoral Ministry, told OSV News.

The group was effectively detained in the CATEM for two months. After the Costa Rican Constitutional Court ruled the situation unconstitutional, many returned to their home countries or moved to third nations.

Now, a year later, the church has reason to believe that the country remains unprepared to receive and handle such a diversity of nationalities.

“I doubt the government has the capacity to deal with such diversity. How can you provide adequate assistance without speaking their languages, for instance?” Father Meneses said.

Sending people back to their countries without knowing the conditions they will face there is also dangerous, he added.

He also expressed concern about the lack of a program to integrate into society those who may wish to remain in Costa Rica.

“The government said there will be a special regime for those who want to apply for refugee status or temporary work. But immigration authorities have already received a large number of requests, especially from Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, and have been unable to process them,” the priest explained.

Father Meneses said that the Human Mobility Pastoral Ministry had requested a meeting with the General Directorate of Migration in March, but it was canceled just a few hours before the scheduled time.

The pastoral ministry released a statement April 6 on the memorandum of understanding. In the document, it said that “every migration policy must focus on human dignity and on the unrestricted respect for fundamental rights.”

The statement also listed the human principles that must be upheld by the agreement, mentioning the need to offer “dignified conditions of reception, with assistance, safety, and well-being.”

“The Gospel reminds us: ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me,'” the letter concluded.

Father Meneses told OSV News that Costa Rica has been accepting such agreements with the United States due to diplomatic pressure.

“The new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) measures have been overcrowding U.S. facilities, so they now need to send some deportees to other countries,” he said.

Bishop Blanco told OSV News that President-elect Fernández had met with members of the bishops’ conference and hopes that she will meet again with church leaders in May.

“She showed herself open to dialogue and willing to receive the Church’s help,” he said.

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Eduardo Campos Lima writes for OSV News from Sao Paulo.

(OSV News) — An increasing number of the nation’s young men say religion is “very important” in their lives, marking a return to levels seen 25 years ago, and edging them ahead of young women on the issue, according to Gallup.

In addition, Gallup noted that attendance at religious services has risen by several points since 2022-2023 among young Republican men and women.

The data comes as previous polling from Pew Research Center showed a leveling off in a multiyear decline in Christianity in the U.S. — although Pew noted there’s no statistical evidence of a religious revival, and Catholics are seeing the greatest net losses of believers compared to other religions.

Gallup released its findings April 16, based on data collected as part of its Gallup Poll Social Series, which since 2001 has surveyed respondents monthly on a slate of issues to identify multiyear trends.

Each survey polls at least 1,000 U.S. adults in all 50 states and Washington, with respondents participating by either cellphone or landline. The data is weighted, or statistically adjusted, to represent the nation’s demographics.

Gallup found that combined data for 2024-2025 showed 42% of men ages 18-29 ranked religion as “very important,” compared to 29% of their female counterparts.

The numbers reversed a 16-point gap between the two cohorts in 2002-2003, when 57% of women ages 18-29 reported religion as “very important” compared to 41% of their male counterparts.

Gallup noted that the gap had steadily closed by the mid-2010s, with the two groups “closely aligned through 2022-2023.”

But the data from 2024 and 2025 “mark a clear break, with young men now surpassing young women on this measure of religious importance,” said Gallup senior scientist Frank Newport and director of U.S. social research Lydia Saad in their report.

They observed that the reversal is “unique” to the specific age bracket, with women age 30 and older remaining “more religious than men.”

Young women “are now by far the least religious women,” they said, with less than one third (29%) describing religion as very important — far behind the 47% of women ages 30-49 who rank religion as a priority.

Gallup said that while young men have since 2022-2023 become more religious, the share of those identifying with a particular religion has remained largely the same for that period, with 63% naming a faith tradition in 2024-2025.

Still, that number is the highest recorded for the group since 2012-2013 — and contrasts with a decline in religious affiliation among young women, which now stands at 60%.

Among all older age groups for both men and women, religious identity is now “at or near its low points in the trends since 2000-2001,” said Newport and Saad.

Young men are also trending upward in monthly or frequent attendance at religious services, with 40% doing so in 2024-2025, the highest level since 2012-2013, and up from about 33% in 2022-2023, according to Gallup.

“There are definitely a lot more young men that are coming into the Church, that are coming to various ministries,” said Pauline Father Timothy Tarnacki, director of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for Ministry with Young Adults.

Father Tarnacki told OSV News that the surge contrasts with previous years, saying “there usually were more women in the last decades for various events” offered by young adult ministries.

Young women’s attendance has “increased modestly since 2022-2023” — coming in just behind the rate for young men at 39% — but “remains far below the levels recorded in the early 2000s,” the Gallup researchers found.

Attendance rates for older men and women are currently “at or near their trend lows,” they added.

Gallup said attendance at religious services has risen among young Republicans, up 7 points for men (52%) and 8 for women (58%) since 2022-2023.

Among young Democratic men, that figure rose 3 points (26%) for the same period, while remaining largely unchanged among Democratic women (31%).

Gallup highlighted the “distinct differences in party identification between the two groups,” with 48% of young men identifying as Republican or leaning toward the party, and 41% as Democratic or Democratic-leaning.

Young women are significantly more likely to identify with or incline toward the Democratic Party (60%), with only over one quarter (27%) identifying as or leaning as Republican.

“Given the relatively large proportion of young men who are Republican, the upward trends in their religiosity have a significant impact on overall trends among young men,” said Gallup.

On balance, said Gallup, “the religiosity of Americans as a whole remains at a low ebb, with the importance of religion to people, their self-reported attendance and their identification with a religion all holding at or near the lowest levels in Gallup’s long-term trends.”

Yet, the firm added, “young men appear to be an emerging exception to the rule.”

That breakout could signal something beside a strictly spiritual inclination, noted Katherine Coolidge, director of parish and diocesan services at the Colorado-based St. Catherine of Siena Institute, which provides evangelization and apostolic formation for lay Catholics.

“Some young men especially who lean Republican may indicate they first come for reasons of community and shared values,” Coolidge told OSV News.

She cautioned that “we are complex beings” and that “often there is no one single reason that drives us but perhaps one is the catalyst that gets us off the couch and in the pew.”

“When I chat with young adults especially, they often give a cluster of reasons but often they center around the desire for the in-person,” she said, adding that many were in their “teens and early 20s when COVID hit.”

Coolidge said her encounters with young people have revealed reasons for religious affiliation that “run the spectrum.”

But, she said, “two recurring themes stand out: a desire for in-person, human community and a ‘safe’ space where I can hang with people who share my core values and beliefs.”

Another subset “leads with a spiritual question, but it is often a smaller group than the first category,” she added.

Father Tarnacki agreed that “there are many different reasons” for young men returning to the Church.

“Many times it starts with some kind of a hunger for belonging and for community, and then that leads a person to a deeper encounter with the truth, with God, with the Church, with worship,” he said.

But, he added, “sometimes it’s the other way.”

“Sometimes it’s just the experience of a lack of depth in life and in what the culture is presenting, especially to men,” he explained, noting that young men are “seeking identity and seeking the answer to the question, ‘Who am I?'”

Still, said Coolidge, “Whether they have come for purely human needs or are on a spiritual quest — first, praise God they come no matter the reason.”

That quest prompts a pastoral question, she said.

“Are we ready to meet them as they are, where they are, and provide a pathway to encounter, foster and deepen a living relationship with the God who loved them into being?” said Coolidge.

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Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.

(OSV News) — The canonization cause for Jesuit Father Walter Ciszek — a Polish American priest who ministered amid years in Soviet captivity — has been terminated, although the Vatican’s decision does not “diminish the enduring spiritual value” of his witness, said a leading advocate for the cause.

In an April 9 letter, Msgr. Ronald C. Bocian — board president of the former Father Walter Ciszek Prayer League — advised fellow league members that the Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, had been informed the cause’s documentation “does not support” advancing the case for beatification or sainthood.

Msgr. Bocian’s letter replicated a statement from the diocese, provided to OSV News April 17, saying the prayer league will now become the Father Walter J. Ciszek Society and “remain committed to honoring his memory, sharing his message, and encouraging devotion to the profound spiritual insights he left to the Church.”

“This development comes after years of careful study and discernment at the level of the Holy See, which bears the responsibility of evaluating each Cause with thoroughness, integrity, and fidelity to the Church’s norms,” said the diocese, which assumed responsibility for the cause following its initiation by the New Jersey-based Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic.

OSV News is awaiting a response to requests for comment from the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and Msgr. Bocian, who serves as pastor of Divine Mercy Parish in Father Ciszek’s hometown of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.

Born in 1904 to Polish immigrant parents, Father Ciszek was ordained as Jesuit priest in 1937, becoming the first American in the order in the Byzantine Catholic rite, one of the 23 Eastern Catholic churches that, along with the Roman Catholic Church, comprise the universal Catholic Church.

As a seminarian, he had studied in Rome as part of an initiative under Pope Pius XI to equip priests for ministry in Russia. Originally assigned to Poland, he was able to enter Russia on false papers after World War II broke out in 1939 to minister in secret.

Working as an unskilled laborer, Father Ciszek was arrested in 1941 by the secret police as a suspected spy and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in Siberia. While in various prison camps, he managed to celebrate Mass and hear confessions.

After his sentence finished in 1955, he was nonetheless forced to reside in Russia, and worked in a chemical factory — and after decades of no communication was at last able to write to family in the U.S., who had presumed him dead.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy secured his release and that of an American student, exchanging them for two Soviet agents. Until his death in 1984, Father Ciszek worked at the John XXIII Center at Fordham University, which is now the Center for Eastern Christian Studies at the Jesuit-run University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

Father Ciszek recounted his experiences in the books “He Leadeth Me” and “With God in Russia,” co-written with fellow Jesuit Father Daniel Flaherty.

Even as his canonization cause has been relinquished, Father Ciszek’s impact lives on, said the diocese.

“While this news may understandably bring disappointment to the many who have been inspired by Father Ciszek’s example of heroic faith, it does not diminish the enduring spiritual value of his life, witness, and legacy,” the diocese said in its statement.

“We are deeply grateful for the many years of prayer, devotion, and support from the faithful. Father Ciszek’s courage, perseverance, and unwavering trust in God amidst extraordinary suffering has led many souls to God and will continue to touch countless lives,” said the diocese. “Even as the formal canonization process has been stopped, the grace flowing from his witness remains alive.”

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Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.

“Just growing up around that definitely started the love for music,” Collins told “Practicing Catholic” co-hosts Leah Heselton and Father Tom Margevicius for an episode that debuts at 7 p.m. April 17 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.

“I grew up as a lover of theater … musical theater, just dramas and storytelling,” Collins said. “(Those were) the only two things I remember ever listening to growing up: praise and worship music and musicals.”

Collins also thanked his mother for the love of music. She gave her children piano lessons. Though, she also gave her son a stage name. Collins’ last name is really Schlender, but listeners had trouble finding his music because of his last name. He adopted his family’s Irish surname, Collins.

“It got to the point where I was like, ‘I’m gonna just find an artist name that works and sounds cool and people can find a lot easier,’” Collins said. “I love (the) folk Irish heritage sound, musically. I thought, what better way to just carry on the name and kind of have a fun family connection with that as well?”

At heart, Collins is a drummer, he said. When he was younger, he enjoyed the rhythm of the drumming he heard with upbeat Mass music.

“My grandma has dented pots to prove that I was a drummer when I was really little,” Collins said.

Later in his life, people heard Collins sing praise and worship for youth groups. He was asked by the leadership of St. Paul in Ham Lake to lead music groups on a monthly basis.

“I’ve been doing it ever since, coming up on three or four years now,” Collins said. “It’s just super, super fun to be able to praise the Lord consistently and be involved in the parish ministry in that way.”

Outside of church, Collins plays about twice a week at different venues.

“If you’ve listened to my music … I love storytelling and it turns out that I love really sad, emotional music as well,” Collins said. “Something about music that just moves you and has good storytelling elements to it. I play a lot of coffee shops and I’ve played at some different Irish pubs and bars like the Dubliner and Shamrocks down in St. Paul here, which is a lot of fun to play. I have a band that I play with every once in a while, as well.”

As a music leader for St. Paul, Collins said he has fun matching music to the liturgical seasons the Church is in.

“It’s great to have the music follow the season as much as possible,” Collins said. “There’s so many different ways to praise the Lord and enter fully in the Mass and what that looks like. I think that’s different from individual to individual. For me, especially just growing up at St. Paul’s, I never knew anything other than the very charismatic worship with guitars and piano and drums even.”

Collins said music selection in Mass comes down to the best way Catholics can enter into the Mass and fully participate in it.

“Whatever that looks like,” Collins said. “And for me, that’s with guitar and piano.”

Collins new album, “Hands of Time,” was released April 10. The album was crafted around a song Collins wrote that resonates most with him.

“The song is me talking to myself,” Collins said. “I’m telling myself to not worry about what the clock is doing and what everyone else around you is doing, to just live in the moment a bit more. … Alot of the songs have to do with the concept of time and how to use it as best as possible.”

To hear more from Collins about his music and new album, “Hands of Time,” listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. April 18 and 2 p.m. April 19.

Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest episode also features Archbishop Bernard Hebda, in an interview about how the resurrection of Jesus shapes lives.

Listen to interviews after they have aired at practicingcatholicshow.com or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.

With Mass, vendors, breakout sessions, awards and a sales pitch competition, the Twin Cities-based St. Joseph Business Guild is hosting a special effort toward its goal of building a “Catholic economy,” guild founder Roger Vasko said.

“If we don’t build a Catholic economy, someone will build a different economy for us,” Vasko, 67, said of businesses banding together in the guild to share expertise and find employees, customers and like-minded men and women of faith.

Called St. Joseph’s Fair, the May 1-2 event will be held at St. Patrick in Edina. It will begin with a members-only breakfast May 1, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, followed by lunch for parish staff and administrators from around the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to discuss how parishes can be part of the Catholic economy. Mass will be celebrated at 5 p.m., followed by a dinner and presentation of Leading with Faith awards recognizing people whose actions bear witness to the faith in the workplace, Vasko said.

The business exposition and makers’ market will begin with 8 a.m. Mass May 2 and run until 3 p.m. The fair will offer breakout sessions on topics including health care, wellness and medicine, businesses to start in the archdiocese, supporting a family on less than two incomes and discerning whether to start a business.

Speakers will include Charles Marohn, a land use planner and civil engineer who has written books including “Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity,” and Dale Ahlquist, co-founder of the Chesterton Schools Network, which includes Chesterton Academy in Hopkins, Chesterton Academy of the St. Croix Valley in Stillwater and more than 60 other classical, Catholic high schools in the U.S. and abroad.

The day will end with a Saintly Ventures sales pitch competition designed to spotlight and boost Catholic entrepreneurial efforts that actively support the local Church. Businesses can be start-up, early stage or established and looking to grow. Those competing will have an opportunity to pursue crowd funding for their projects and win cash prizes of $5,000 for first place, $2,000 for second and $1,000 for third, Vasko said.

“The fair is part expo, part conference, part festival and it’s about the work being done by and for all the faithful, to foster those labors, and to bring everything to St. Joseph to multiply them,” said Vasko, a member of St. Peter in North St. Paul.

The guild’s website at sjbusinessguild.com includes Saint Joseph’s List, a searchable database for Catholic-owned businesses and services. Among its offerings, the guild holds quarterly meetings at Holy Family in St. Louis Park and St. John the Baptist in New Brighton, and it has offices on the campus of St. Mark in St. Paul. The quarterly meetings are marked by prayer, meet-and-greet sessions, and businesses and job searchers sharing their skills and contact information.

Chad Parsons, 49, a certified nurse practitioner specializing in family medicine, founder of The Family Clinic in White Bear Lake and member of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, is among the guild’s nearly 900 members. He meets every Tuesday morning at St. Mark with a group of men and women that includes a graphic artist, two realtors, a construction contractor, plumber, a landscape artist, experts in personal finance and employee benefits for small businesses, and others.

They share business contacts and ideas, listen to one another’s sales pitches and pray for each other’s needs, Parsons said. Parsons said his clinic is a pioneer in offering cash-based, comprehensive, direct primary care for adults and children, avoiding some of the costs and complications of health insurance. He also invites patients to text him as they need assistance.

Parsons plans to have a table at St. Joseph’s Fair and be a presenter at the health care breakout session.

“Roger’s vision is — and I caught this, too — the more we can support each other in a Catholic economy, the more we support each other monetarily and in so many other ways; spiritually, mind, body and soul,” he said.

“As Catholics, man is not meant to live alone,” said Parsons, who plans to have a table at the fair explaining his business. “We really need each other. That is the central piece of everything, and no less for Roger and the guild.”

Parsons plans to have a table at St. Joseph’s Fair and be a presenter at the health care breakout session.

People can register for the fair at sjbusinessguild.com/events/st-josephs-fair-may-02.

“We all knew him because his kids played Little League and we just knew the family. And my father came home from that talk and he said, ‘Pastor Ed says if we don’t believe in the Resurrection, if the Resurrection wasn’t true, then nothing else matters.’ It was something that my father talked about for the next 30 years,” Archbishop Hebda said.

In an episode of “Practicing Catholic” that debuts at 7 p.m. April 17 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, Archbishop Hebda reminded listeners that the Jesus’ resurrection has consequences for us.

“It should shape the way in which we look at everything because it gives us that hope of new life,” Archbishop Hebda said. “(Recognize) that Jesus’ death and resurrection were for a purpose, that the gates of heaven could be opened again for us.”

When realizing the depth of Christ’s love for us, Archbishop Hebda said that should impact the “way in which we look at the challenges in our own lives” and how “we relate to others.” Jesus’ resurrection is “the prism through which we have to be able to look at everything.”

“One of the reasons why the hope of the Resurrection is so brilliant for us is that it comes out of such great despair,” the archbishop said. “When you think about what that must have been like on Good Friday for Jesus himself, or for Mary, or for John, or Mary Magdalene, those who stood at the foot of the cross, or for those who fled, or just for bystanders, it was objectively an awful situation where a just man is being put to a horrible death. In the midst of all of that, there’s just no hope. What’s the future?”

The opportunity for new life that comes from the Resurrection stands in sharp contrast to the lows of Good Friday, the archbishop said. Hope is the sense that God has given us a future, Archbishop Hebda continued.

“He loves us, for sure, and he’s calling us to himself, and that is something that is a possibility for us,” the archbishop said.

As a seminarian, Archbishop Hebda took a course on Christian virtues taught by the late Father Jerome Dittberner. Father Dittberner taught that the theological virtues reflect aspects of God’s nature.

“The aspect of God’s nature that the theological virtue of love has is God’s beauty. God is desirable, beautiful in himself. Faith is God’s truth. He can be trusted. He will not lie. But hope, interestingly, Father Dittberner would say, is God’s power,” Archbishop Hebda said. “God has the ability to bring us to completion. And that’s why we do not give up, because we have hope in him rather than in our own feeble attempts.”

To hear more from Archbishop Hebda about hope after the Resurrection, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. April 18 and 2 p.m. April 19.

Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest episode also features Alec Collins, a local artist and worship leader, in an interview about how music can bring people closer to God.

Listen to interviews after they have aired at practicingcatholicshow.com or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.