Lawyers with Jeff Anderson & Associates, a law firm that specializes in abuse cases, announced at a press event on Sept. 10 that they had settled with the archdiocese for $5.5 million to be paid out to nine survivors of abuse in the Church.

Attorney Jeff Anderson describe the development as a “tipping point and a turning point” regarding allegations of abuse in the archdiocese. He said the settlements were a matter of both “reckoning” and “accountability.”

“It is about the courage of every survivor with whom we and others have had the privilege to work to bring about change, change in the Archdiocese of Chicago and change across the state of Illinois and change across this country,” the lawyer said.

The Chicago Archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement. But the archdiocese has paid out major settlements to abuse victims numerous times in recent years.

In 2022 leaders settled multiple cases with abuse victims, one totaling $1.2 million and another $1.75 million.

In 2024, meanwhile, the archdiocese settled one abuse case for $950,000.

Multiple settlements by the archdiocese have involved allegations regarding disgraced former priest Daniel McCormack, who pleaded guilty to abusing numerous children years ago and who spent more than a decade in prison on those charges.

In 2025 the archdiocese filed a lawsuit alleging a “racketeering enterprise” against multiple plaintiffs who had reportedly filed fake abuse lawsuits regarding McCormack.

Archdiocesan attorney James Geoly said at the time that the lawsuit was meant to protect “the interests of legitimate victims.”

“We do not want [the racketeering lawsuit] to deter any legitimate victim from coming forward. I would encourage anybody who’s had a problem with a priest or cleric to do that,” he told the archdiocesan news outlet.

U.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama’s Sept. 11 order said the state would be blocked from enforcing the suicide law against the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm and the Little Sisters of the Poor who had brought the lawsuit.

Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich is also a plaintiff in the suit. The order applies only to the sisters and the archdiocese, the judge said; the state is free to enforce the suicide law elsewhere.

The Catholic objectors brought the lawsuit on Sept. 3, arguing that the suicide law infringes on religious liberty by requiring Catholics to participate in helping patients end their own lives. The lawsuit was filed by lawyers with the religious liberty law firm Becket.

On Sept. 11 Cupich said in a statement that the law should be struck down “permanently.”

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

Mother Mary Rose Heery, O. Carm., prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, said the temporary order “brings real peace of mind to our Sisters, our residents, and their families.”

“It allows us to continue our vocation of showing Christ’s unbounded love to those who need it most—a love that endures in every circumstance and through every hardship,” she said.

Catholic health groups join another Illinois lawsuit

Illinois has become a battleground in recent weeks over its suicide law, which Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker signed in December 2025. The measure allows residents with a terminal illness to receive lethal prescriptions from doctors in order to take their own lives before they die naturally.

In August Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki, a Lutheran care home, and four Illinois-based doctors filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing similarly to the Chicago lawsuit that the state suicide law infringes on their religious freedom and their ability to care for their patients.

Later in the month the state agreed to not enforce the law against the plaintiffs while the suit plays out. In the meantime, multiple additional Catholic objectors have joined the Springfield Diocese’s lawsuit against the suicide policy.

The Thomas More Society announced on Sept. 11 that five religious health care associations had joined Paprocki’s suit, including the Illinois Catholic Health Association and the National Association of Catholic Nurses. A doctor and a nurse also joined the suit.

The Thomas More Society said the plaintiffs “represent 95% of Catholic health institutions in Illinois and more than 13,000 health care professionals nationwide.”

Peter Breen, the head of litigation at the legal group, said attorneys were seeking to extend the protection secured by the initial plaintiffs to the “thousands of Catholic and Christian health care professionals” represented in the new filing.

"The First Amendment protects the rights of Catholic and Christian doctors, hospitals, and health care ministries to reject assisted suicide and heal and care for the ill and infirm in accord with their consciences,” Breen said.

He argued that the suicide law “flagrantly violates those rights by forcing dedicated healthcare professionals to promote deadly drugs to their patients.”

“This summer I received a cancer diagnosis and will be undergoing treatment in the UK,” Claire Lai said in a statement first reported by the Daily Wire on Sept. 8. “I am optimistic about the outcome but will be unable to travel and attend functions for the duration. I am endlessly grateful for my parents’ example of perseverance. Our Christian faith teaches — and my father bears witness — that suffering can be redemptive. Mine is but a fraction of my father’s, but I hope to bear it as a grace as well as he has. I deeply wish that dad was here, and pray that he will be released soon. I am so very grateful to everyone who continues to work toward securing his freedom.”

Iraq to build largest Marian shrine in the country

Inishke, a Chaldean village overlooking the Sapna Valley, is preparing for a 59-foot-tall monument to Our Lady of the Sapna Valley, planned as the largest Marian shrine in Iraq.

The design brings together Marian devotion and Iraqi heritage. Sculptor Thabit Mikhail has given Mary and the child Jesus Middle Eastern features, while Maryʼs two braids represent Iraqi mothers and grandmothers, ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, reported Sept. 5. The 43-foot-wide base takes inspiration from the spiral form of Samarraʼs famous minaret and ancient Mesopotamian architecture.

A chapel inside the base and another prayer space near the statue will give pilgrims places for prayer and candle lighting. Funded by donations from people from Inishke around the world, the project has been under development for more than a decade and is expected to become a new destination for religious tourism in northern Iraq.

Canonization cause opens for murdered Northern Ireland priests

The causes of canonization for two priests killed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by members of the British Army in the 1970s has officially been opened.

The Diocese of Down and Connor confirmed that the canonization cause has been opened for Father Hugh Mullan and Father Noel Fitzpatrick, who were shot in two separate instances while administering last rites to parishioners in Corpus Christi Parish in Ballymurphy, according to a report from the Irish Catholic on Sept. 10.

News of their canonization cause comes after an official inquest into the deaths of the two priests and other victims at the hands of the British Army found that the soldiers had “lost control,” the report said. Bishop Alan McGuckian said during a Mass for victims’ families in May that the finding “restores dignity to the deceased, and it brings a measure of justice to those who grieve.”

Christian doctor in Canada fined for refusing to give teen puberty blockers

A Canadian human rights tribunal has ordered family physician Dr. Henry Ajaero to pay $28,100 after he denied a teen puberty blockers at his clinic in March 2021.

Ajaero told the tribunal that “he did not feel comfortable administering” the hormone medication Lupron and that “doing so would go against his religious beliefs” and “because it is outside the scope of his practice,” according to a Sept. 9 CBC report.

The tribunal ruled that Alaero’s testimonial did not establish sufficient proof that administering the drug was in conflict with his religious belief or professional expertise.

While the tribunal acknowledged Ajaero likely made the decision quickly and in the context of a busy day, it ultimately ruled that "this context is an explanation for Dr. Ajaero’s decision, but it does not justify his decision to deny medical services to a vulnerable trans youth because of her gender identity,” according to the report.

Saydnaya, Syria, looks beyond its annual Marian celebrations

The feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary once again brought pilgrims from Syria and abroad to Saydnaya, where prayers and the traditional procession with an icon of Mary marked one of the cityʼs most important celebrations. Yet the occasion has also renewed discussion about Saydnayaʼs future.

Researcher Elias Azar, founder of the Saydnaya Center for Studies and Research, is working on a nonprofit initiative to preserve the cityʼs history while developing religious tourism, environmental projects, traditional agriculture, and local media, ACI MENA reported Sept. 9.

The effort comes after years of war and emigration. Azar estimated that Saydnaya has lost about half of its Christian population since 2011, although it remains a Christian-majority city. Residents are also calling for greater security, which they see as essential to protecting daily life and Saydnayaʼs place as a major Christian pilgrimage destination in Syria.

Vatican UN Permanent Observer Mission speaks against nuclear testing

Monsignor Robert Murphy, chargé d’affaires of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, called for renewed international commitment to ending nuclear weapons testing in a letter to the president of the U.N. General Assembly.

The Sept. 1 letter came amid a high-level plenary meeting marking International Day Against Nuclear Tests.

“The suffering caused by nuclear testing should have reinforced the common conviction that peace cannot be preserved by developing ever more destructive weapons,” Murphy said. “However, today renewed reliance on nuclear deterrence, increasingly aggressive nuclear rhetoric and attempts to question the long-standing international norm against nuclear testing risk undermining this conviction.” Murphy further called for an entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

St. Charbel communities in Poland call Catholics back to prayer

The sixth national gathering of St. Charbel communities in Poland focused on a simple question: Can people become so occupied with religious activities that they leave little time for God?

Maronite priest Father Fabio M. Lattouf warned against replacing a personal relationship with God with a search only for inner peace, constant Church activities, or an endless stream of religious content, ACI MENA reported on Sept. 8.

Bishop Andrzej Siemieniewski presented St. Charbel as another way forward, pointing to the Lebanese saintʼs long hours of silence before the Eucharist as an example of a spiritual life centered on Christ rather than activity.

At Bkerke, 26 couples choose marriage amid Lebanonʼs difficulties

Twenty-six brides and grooms took part in the 17th collective wedding organized by the Maronite League at Bkerke, continuing an initiative launched in 2009 to help young Lebanese couples establish families despite growing financial pressures.

The collective weddings have so far helped form 404 families, which now include 521 children, ACI MENA reported Sept. 6.

Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai told the newlyweds that forming a family in difficult circumstances is an “act of faith in the future” and prayed that their homes would be marked by love, fidelity, forgiveness, faith, and peace.

“Families today are struggling to achieve what they so badly want: to have the kind of relationships we’re made for, beginning in the home, especially between spouses and between parents and children,” Cuddeback said. “They know they want something different, something better, but they feel hamstrung. In a culture that works against them in many ways, they are frustrated because they lack clear vision and examples to pattern themselves after.”

Cuddeback, who teaches a course on family and household and is also the author of “True Friendship,” spoke to EWTN News about how he hopes his book conveys that “[a]nyone can choose to be intentional about their household and make real progress with dramatic fruits in the lives of those we love most.”

EWTN News: What do you see as the biggest challenge to building and maintaining an intentional home?

Cuddebach: It all begins with priorities. As a society we have turned away from the intense focus that our household requires — and this is evident in how we struggle in marriage, raising children, and relating to the elderly. Even many traditionally-minded folks struggle to realize and enact the demanding, even while ordinary, aspects of God’s plan for our homes.

Aristotle says that a society tends to produce the kind of people it honors. We do not honor those who prioritize home life — either women or men. This means that many of the structures, practices, and assumptions of our age are at odds with the real good of home life. This is especially evident in our obsession with the latest technologies.

This book is a call to all of us to do something radically different and profoundly better — while always recognizing we must be people of our time and place. It calls us to discover that looking first to what our children and our elderly really need is the high road to deeper fulfillment for all of us.

How has Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas influenced your thought on how technology should be incorporated in the home?

Pope Leo makes clear that we have come to a crisis point. The time is now to be honest, serious, and persistent in examining our use of technology in view of real human flourishing. This must start in the home. No one else is going to do this for us.

But as the pope makes clear, right practice must flow from an understanding of who we are and what we’re made for. “The Intentional Household” offers the rich and positive view of daily life in the home that grounds such an examination. It gives the “yes” that strengthens the “nos” we need to say. It gives direction for rising to the challenges of our age, including how to channel technology to true human flourishing.

Approaching homelife intentionally — especially attending to the ordinary in good work and true leisure as essential to our relationships — we can take real steps to become those biblical good stewards so honored by the Lord.

How does this apply to those across all walks of life, including single people, married couples without children, those who are divorced or separated?

The principles of a vibrant home life are both perennial and flexible. Wherever we find ourselves we can discover how the plan that God wrote into human nature is much better than we have realized.

Brokenness and suffering today are widespread. God’s plan encompasses these realities. By the grace of God, anyone who is humble and willing to take an intentional approach can affect real, and indeed dramatic change by applying the book’s eight principles. We can all take real steps to make our homes a place of vibrant life, with deep belonging, connection, and presence.

One of the thinkers you cite in your book is Wendell Berry. In light of his recent passing can you speak to his influence on your life and thinking?

Wendell Berry saw clearly how the loss of activities of work and leisure in the home has led to our experience of disconnection and isolation. Home should be a place of deep connection: between us and loved ones and neighbors, between soul and body, between us and the earth.

One of Berry’s pivotal insights is the key role of a certain kind of work in the home. Berry has pointed out that the work of traditional home arts is much more important than we have realized. He argues that as the breakdown of home life came especially through the loss of good work, the renewal will likewise come through a rediscovery of work that connects us to one another as it connects us to our bodies and to the earth, and ultimately to God.

Wendell Berry was a prophet of the extraordinary beauty and importance of the ordinary. Making our home an intentional household means rediscovering the power of ordinary things, such as mealtimes with the whole household, shared work in the kitchen and other home arts, and “porch time” and other such leisure times. Attention to these things can transform our marriage, parenting, and other key relationships.

Bringing together leading technological officers from around the globe, Montse Alvarado, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, spoke with industry professionals about the growing use of AI in a Sept. 9 special, “Beyond Fear: A Catholic Vision for Artificial Intelligence.”

Pope Leo XIV framed the intensifying debate over AI with the May 25 launch of his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. Tech leaders said AI is rapidly reshaping society and the Church, offering powerful tools for ministry while also requiring firm ethical boundaries, human‑centered leadership, and faith‑guided discernment to ensure the technology strengthens human dignity.

“There’s a good side to that exponential innovation because it helps us get to the most vulnerable people faster,” said Joel Chakra, president of Tim Tebow Foundation and venture capitalist in AI technology companies.

“It can it can really rob us of our true humanity, or it can enhance our lives. And the choice is ours,” said Arthur C. Brooks, American author and academic who wrote the foreword to Magnifica Humanitas.

Brooks said the technology can either diminish or deepen human dignity, depending on how it is used. He added that despite real concerns about job loss and disruption, he remains optimistic because humans are “unbelievably ingenious” and made to solve problems.

“Iʼm not a pessimist. Iʼm an optimist. I do realize that thereʼs displacement. I do realize that thereʼs a lot to be concerned about. But I also know that humans are unbelievably ingenious that the Lord made us to solve problems,” Brooks said.

Vic Gundotra, former senior vice president at Google and a Catholic convert, said: “AI helped in my conversion to becoming Catholic. I was raised as a Jehovahʼs Witness and I had never read the early Church Fathers, but AI showed me what the Catholic Church taught was mirrored in the early Church Fathers.”

While AI shaped his own path to Catholicism, Gundotra also cautioned that the same technology can magnify human failings, noting that “any tool can be used to amplify the worst in human capability” and “augment and worsen the worst human characteristics as well.”

Gundotra warned that AI carries real risks for young people and said parents still need to guide how it’s used, noting that the technology is powerful but comes with clear downsides.

Sara Anderson of Pushpay, a digital‑giving and church‑management platform, said her team uses AI to streamline parish administration so staff can spend more time on ministry. The goal is not to replace human connection but to free priests, volunteers, and parish workers from tedious data entry and outdated systems, she said.

“There’s a moment in our Catholic Church where there’s so many people wanting to to join the Church to learn about the Church and … the tools are outdated,” Anderson said. “Technology is making their lives better.”

Chakra and Anderson are encouraging faith-filled individuals to hold more technological leadership positions as artificial intelligence becomes more apparent in our daily lives.

“I think for too long, we have taken a back seat to some of the highest leadership positions and taken a back seat to innovation, when in reality, our faith and our heritage is driven by some of the smartest people to ever exist in the world,” Chakra said.

“That is one of the things I try to help the parish admins and the office staff learn to be brave. We need them to explore; we need them to meet the moment of technology and faith. We need them to be leaders,” Anderson said.

As AI spreads, speakers said the Church needs more leaders engaged in technology while also setting clear limits to ensure digital tools support, not replace, human ministry.

“Boundaries are needed to help create the best use [of] technology. And the other way is through AI policies, ethics, and framework,” Anderson said.

McKenna West, an Alaska nurse and surrogate mother, gave birth to the baby boy on Aug. 12. She is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block a court order that recognized the boy’s biological parents as having full custody and being the authority in medical decisions.

The unborn child was diagnosed with a treatable heart defect at about 20 weeks into pregnancy. His biological parents demanded West abort the child because of the defect and threatened her with financial penalties if she did not, according to the petition filed by West’s lawyers at Alliance Defending Freedom.

West refused and fled to Texas because the state’s pro-life laws prohibit most abortions. The boy is receiving lifesaving medical treatment at this time due to a court order in Texas. However, the petition states the biological parents “refused to commit to authorizing any life-saving care” for as long as needed to treat the condition.

“Since [West] is now completely excluded from the life of the medically fragile infant she brought into the world, much less from the ability to make critical health decisions that protect him, time is of the essence,” the petition states.

The petition warns that without immediate Supreme Court action, “the child could be removed from the Texas hospital and taken to California for hospice — despite his treatable condition — around September 17, if not sooner.”

“Relief is all the more warranted here, given that the stakes involve the child’s life,” the petition adds.

The panel, titled “AI, Catholic Social Teaching, and Pope Leoʼs Invitation to Dialogue with the World,” examined Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas and its call for a shared human effort to develop technology that serves the common good rather than harms it.

Speakers noted that the Holy Father’s encyclical stopped short of prescribing specific policy ideas for addressing the moral and ethical concerns, but the nuncio said “there is the perception that we need a moral voice” on the subject.

“A moral voice is what?” he said. “Not everything which is possible to be done should be done. Not everything that technology offers should be taken. This is a moral choice.”

Caccia stressed that decisions affecting human lives should not be handed over to AI, citing distinctions between AI algorithms and the human conscience, as the Holy Father discussed in Magnifica Humanitas.

Leo drew a distinction between artificial intelligence and human intelligence in the encyclical, focusing on how each approaches moral questions. The pope wrote that he rejected ideas of “artificial moral agents” and the notion that a machine can “distinguish between right and wrong with greater consistency than a human being.”

“Moral judgment cannot be reduced to calculation, for it involves conscience, personal responsibility and the recognition of the other as a person,” Leo wrote. “Therefore, it is not permissible to entrust lethal or otherwise irreversible decisions to artificial systems.”

Caccia said during the panel discussion that, as a society, “we have to keep the value of the human relationship.”

“The problem is that [if] life and death is decided by a machine, not by the human being, who is accountable?” he said. “So these are very important, important questions. But I am confident, as I said, that together we can face this situation and find a way.”

The nuncio said he has similar concerns about the use of AI in other types of decision-making that impacts humans.

“I hear very troubling accounts of algorithms that can block access to healthcare, employment, and security on the basis of data tainted by prejudice and injustice,” he said. “And Iʼve heard the silence of those who have no voice. When decisions are made, decisions [are] likely to generate new forms of exclusion and suffering.”

Quoting the encyclical, Caccia affirmed the pope’s call that AI “needs to be disarmed.”

“The word is strong, I know, but deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences, and indicating paths forward for humanity,” he said. “This is more or less a framework in which we can go on with the conversation.”

Speaking to EWTN News after the panel, Caccia said the pope’s call to address moral concerns of AI is not just a call to Church leadership but to every Catholic.

“There is, of course, the voice of the bishops,” he said. “But there is also the voice of Catholic people who are in the business or are engineers who are in the economy, who are in the field. So itʼs not just for those who have pastoral responsibility, but for the bigger community.”

Pope’s impact on AI discussion

Several panelists discussed the importance of Magnifica Humanitas in providing a type of moral guidance on AI development that focuses on the common good of humanity.

Jasmine Sun, a journalist who writes about AI and Silicon Valley, said she “was actually surprised by how much folks I knew in Silicon Valley, in the AI industry did pay attention to Magnifica Humanitas.”

“It was a lot more engagement, I think, than I expected,” she said. “And once again, I think itʼs because there is this sense that the profit motive that has driven Silicon Valley, that continues to drive Silicon Valley, is not enough.”

Molly Kinder, CEO of the Breakwater Initiative, said the Church provides “wisdom and moral leadership” and believes its broad focus on humanity is why people listened.

“Iʼm struck that in the opening pages of the Bible, there is a discussion of Adam and Eve being put on Earth to till the land as our fundamental reason for existing,” she said. “And it feels to me sometimes when Iʼm in Silicon Valley … they almost talk about almost a new Garden of Eden that AI is going to bring about, that maybe our purpose is not to work, or maybe itʼs leisure or a check and a hobby.”

Caccia too said he was “positively surprised” by the reaction to the encyclical, saying “it seems that there was a need to do something about this.”

“It didnʼt pretend to have the answers,” he said, “but he put questions, common questions that we have to tackle together to decide where we want to go.”

There were “no allegations involving minors,” the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, said on Sept. 11, while Landry in a statement further said there were “no allegations of sexual activity whatsoever.”

The Fall River Diocese where Landry serves as a priest said in its statement that it had received allegations that included violations of priestly codes of conduct for both the Fall River Diocese and the Archdiocese of New York, the latter in which Landry currently serves.

Diocesan leaders determined “that sufficient evidence exists to restrict [Landry] from the public exercise of priestly ministry, pending the resolution of this matter,” a decision it said was in line with its own policy.

The statement said Landry “is entitled to the presumption of innocence while the investigation continues.”

In his own statement also released on Sept. 11, Landry said he himself opted for a voluntary leave of absence from the pontifical mission directorship, a departure he described as “temporary.”

The priest said he had been told by the Fall River Diocese that the accusations “involve alleged violations of prudence, pastoral boundaries, and diocesan codes of conduct with adults.”

“There are no allegations of sexual activity whatsoever or of misconduct of any kind with a minor,” he said. “I maintain my innocence of any canonical violation or crime and will continue to defend my reputation to the best of my ability under the law of the Church.”

“Those who have raised concerns deserve to be heard,” he continued. “I am grateful that canon law respects my natural human right to be presumed innocent and the right to protect the good reputation I have enjoyed throughout the many years the Lord has given me the privilege to serve Him and His holy people.”

He asked for prayers “for me and all those concerned,” including Fall River Bishop Edgar Moreira da Cunha, SDV, as well as those involved with the investigation and “those who have brought these accusations.”

In a separate statement on Sept. 11, the Pontifical Mission Societies USA said its chief operating officer Douglas Culp would serve as interim national director following Landry’s leave of absence.

Landry, who was ordained to the priesthood by then-Fall River Bishop Seán Patrick OʼMalley in 1999, has served a variety of prominent roles in the U.S. Church.

He was named by the Vatican as the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA in September 2024. That position came after he had served a leadership role in that year’s National Eucharistic Pilgrimage as a chaplain along the pilgrimage’s Seton Route.

At the time of that appointment he was also serving as chaplain at Columbia University in New York, having been appointed there by Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

He had previously served at the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and was named a Missionary of Mercy by Pope Francis in 2016. He was named a monsignor by Pope Francis in 2024.

He has been a contributor to EWTN for many years, writing columns regularly for the National Catholic Register and frequently appearing as a guest on programs such as “Conversations with Consequences.”

Landry has also served as an expert commentator for the network’s television coverage, including during the 2025 conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

In a statement on Sept. 11, Michael Warsaw, chairman of the board and CEO of EWTN Global Catholic Network, said EWTN was “deeply grateful for Monsignor Roger Landry’s 27 years of faithful priestly ministry and service to the universal Church.”

“We are heartbroken by this painful situation involving Monsignor Landry, a longtime friend and valued collaborator who has contributed greatly to the Network’s mission of evangelization,” Warsaw said. “EWTN takes concerns of this nature seriously and is following its established internal protocols while awaiting the outcome of the diocesan investigation.”

“It is essential that those who have raised concerns be treated with dignity, respect, and pastoral care, and that Monsignor Landry be afforded fairness, a timely process, and the presumption of innocence,” Warsaw continued, adding that the network holds “everyone involved in our prayers, asking that this matter be resolved in truth and charity, without unnecessary delay, and trusting that Monsignor Landry may soon return to active priestly ministry in service to the Church.”

Canonical process involves investigation, diocesan review

Monsignor William King, a professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America, told EWTN News on Sept. 11 that typically in such situations a diocese will respond first by launching a preliminary investigation.

The diocesan bishop would appoint an investigator, which may or may not be a priest. “The investigator has pretty broad powers to ask questions and seek evidence, and then when that’s finished, he would bring it back to the bishop and the bishop would decide if there’s sufficient evidence to move on to the next step,” King said.

The bishop would then likely consult with canon law experts. After the preliminary process is complete, King said, a bishop will determine whether or not to proceed with a penal process, which could involve a tribunal or else an administrative process.

Landry in his statement on Sept. 11 said he was told the process “might take up to several months.”

“I am cooperating fully with the investigation, with trust that a fair investigation will establish the truth that the Lord promises will set us free,” he said.

This story was updated on Sept. 11 at 2:20 p.m. ET with information from a statement by the Pontifical Mission Societies USA.

In an interview with Colm Flynn on “EWTN News Nightly” that aired Sept. 10, Gielen said New Zealand’s laity desired to rebuild their church.

“They want another one. They want something that they can celebrate in, and it can unify us,” Gielen said. “So, we’ve responded. We’ve chosen a design; it’s a Romanesque Gothic design, and we’ve now presented it to the people we’ve fundraised over. We’re very hopeful that in the next few years we’ll be able to get started and build it.”

Worshippers used a temporary parish during the past 15 years since the 2011 earthquakes that collapsed buildings and killed nearly 200 people throughout the city.

Gielen said the restoration work has become a symbol of something larger — a reminder that the diocese’s rebuilding is both physical and spiritual.

“It is a metaphor. Rebuild my church, but we’re actually. It’s not only the cathedral we’re rebuilding. We lost 30 or 35 of our churches — damaged or demolished — in the last 15 years,” Gielen said. “So, it’s a real example of how faith is. There’s a resurgence of faith in the West and in New Zealand as well.”

Gielen said the rebuilding has stirred energy across the diocese.

“People are very excited, and it shows the wider community that our people are still hope-filled and they believe in this; and even secular society has gotten behind this, and they’re very excited about it as well,” he said.

A perpetual adoration chapel is going to be attached to the cathedral, Gielen said.

Carris worked for the Port Authority, and his office was on the 71st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. That morning, before going to work, he had attended 8 a.m. Mass at a small chapel near Battery Park.

Shortly afterward, he was sitting at his desk overlooking Manhattan when he heard the roar of a jet engine. Before he could process what was happening, there was an enormous impact. Flames and debris began falling outside his window.

“The building tilted, and it tilted so much, books fell off my bookshelf, and for a split second, I thought it was gonna keep going over,” Carris told me in a recent interview. As people ran for the stairs, he noticed a woman in distress. Her name was Judith Toppin. She suffered from sarcoidosis and had a defibrillator in her chest. She was struggling physically.

At that moment, Carris made a split-second decision that would define the rest of their lives. Supporting her on one side, while she clung to the banister on the other, he began the long, slow descent with her — 70 stories, one step at a time.

Toppin was moving slowly and Carris knew they had a long way to go. Yet what is striking is how calm they said the people on the stairwell remained.

‘The Lord is my shepherd’

In 2001, there were relatively few cellphones and no social media.

People watching news coverage of the attacks on television in Australia knew more about what was happening than those inside the towers.

Carris and Toppin did not know that a passenger jet had deliberately struck the building. They did not know another plane had hit the South Tower. And they had no idea that the building they were in was about to collapse.

Then, partway down, something incredible happened.

“Judith was really struggling, and suddenly she started to pray out loud, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.’ And when she started doing that, I said, ‘I better start praying, too.’”

Eventually they emerged from the tower and stepped onto the street.

“When we got out, it was like the Twilight Zone. There was complete chaos.”

As they moved away, Carris began to realize that among the surrounding debris were the bodies of people who had fallen or jumped from the towers.

He told Toppin not to look at the ground, just to look ahead and muster up the last bit of energy she had to get away. Then, when they were barely a block away, the North Tower, from which they had just escaped, came crashing down.

Toppin would later write an essay called “Angels Walk Among Us,” describing Carris as the man who saved her life. But as he would eventually tell me, he soon realized that it was actually Toppin who saved him.

Recently I traveled through New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington making an EWTN News documentary to mark the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. I wanted to remember what happened that day, but also to ask a more difficult question: Where was God in the midst of such evil?

The stories I would go on to hear from priests and religious who responded on that day, and how faith helped survivors and family members of victims cope, provided a lot of inspiration. In midtown Manhattan, not far from where the Twin Towers once stood, I sat down with Franciscan Father Brian Jordan, who ministered for months at Ground Zero after the attacks.

He remembered seeing the very best and the very worst of humanity side by side.

“We saw goodness at its best. We also saw evil at its worst,” he told me. “But good always triumphs over evil.”

He watched firefighters, police officers, construction workers, and volunteers work together in the ruins. When human remains were found, work would stop, and prayers would be said.

But there’s one image that stayed with him the most. Days after the attacks, a construction worker approached him and said, “Hey, Father, you wanna see God’s house?” He led Jordan into the wreckage, where there were two steel beams, one standing vertically, the other horizontally. “Oh my God, it was the shape of a cross,” Jordan remembered. “God meant this for a reason. Now I know why you call this God’s house.”

Jordan remembers that for everyone at Ground Zero that steel-beamed cross became a powerful sign that faith had not disappeared beneath the rubble and that God was with them.

Shanksville’s sacred stillness

In contrast to the rumble and noise of lower Manhattan, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, is quiet and tranquil. As I stood overlooking the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93, I looked at the trees, rolling fields, and an enormous expanse of sky. There is an almost sacred stillness to the place. It is difficult to imagine an airliner hurtling toward this peaceful patch of Pennsylvania before smashing into the ground.

But in the minutes before that impact, something extraordinary happened aboard the aircraft. Through telephone calls, passengers knew their plane was part of a terrorist attack and decided to fight back.

Todd Beamer asked a telephone operator to pray the Lord’s Prayer with him before he attempted with other passengers to storm the cockpit and try to overthrow the hijackers. And because of their brave efforts, rather than the plane hitting the White House or Capitol Hill, killing hundreds if not thousands more, the plane crashed at 500 miles an hour, completely upside down, here into this field.

Father Joseph McCaffrey, a Catholic priest and FBI chaplain, arrived at the crash site the following morning.

“When I first arrived the trees were still smoking. And the first thing I did when I came was I prayed, and I consecrated the ground. I prayed the prayers of interment for all who perished here,” he tells me there at the site. And as grieving families began arriving, McCaffrey was there to meet them.

“My approach was to listen, and then based on what I heard, I would offer a word of the hope of eternal life, of God’s ultimate compassion and mercy, and that they’re not alone, that God enters into their suffering.”

From Shanksville, my journey took me back toward Washington and the Pentagon. The Pentagon Memorial feels more intimate. Beside the enormous military headquarters are 184 individual memorial units, one for each person killed there and aboard American Airlines Flight 77.

Each consists of a cantilevered bench above a shallow pool of flowing water, arranged according to the ages of the victims.

The benches are pointed toward the direction in which the plane flew that morning.

Newly ordained

Father Stephen McGraw was a newly ordained priest when he was stuck in traffic near the Pentagon that morning. He sat in his car as the plane flew so low overhead that it struck a lamppost. Moments later, he watched it smash into the Pentagon. He immediately ran toward the Pentagon.

Sitting with me on one of the memorial benches, he said, “I had the sense that God had placed me there. This is what I’ve signed up for. I want to give the sacraments. But it was beyond anything that I had done. It was just that God had placed me there as an instrument, a humble, weak servant priest at his disposal to be a witness of his closeness and his presence, to say that God was here.”

For those on board the plane, or in the direct area of impact, there was no hope of survival, but other victims ran from the building onto the Pentagon lawn, many with horrific burns. They lay down in the grass in agony, and while paramedics ran around from person to person, McGraw knelt beside them. “I was telling them, ‘Jesus is with you.’ And I repeated that to them several times, and more than once, there was actually a positive response.”

He remembered kneeling beside one badly burned man as medics worked to save him. “I said to him, with more conviction, with more vigor, I said, ‘I tell you, Jesus is with you now.’ And I remember he said, ‘Yes, I know.’”

Back in New York, Paul Carris, the Port Authority worker who escaped the North Tower with Judith Toppin, told me that for years after 9/11, the trauma of that day affected him deeply. But something else troubled him too. Toppin kept portraying him as an angel, as the man who had done everything right. It forced Carris to look at the way he had been living his own life.

“I had to face up to the fact that I had not always lived my life like the Catholic that I was being portrayed as. I separated my faith from the secular world. It has caused some issues in my marriage over the years, and so on. And Judith wrote this piece that described me as an angel.”

Carris began therapy with a priest and later attended a spiritual retreat. This had a profound effect on him, and in time his faith deepened and he entered formation for the permanent diaconate for the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. Judith, who died in 2021, was there when he was ordained.

“She said to me, ‘You saved me,’ and I replied, ‘No, you saved me. In fact, God saved both of us that day.’”

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

Three people who spoke with EWTN News reported that Idemma was routinely late in paying them for their work and missed payments that have still not been fulfilled. In some cases, late payments are more than a year overdue, subcontractors said. Each person said Idemma initially promised to make them whole and then eventually stopped responding to emails or phone calls.

Michael Aldeguer, administrative assistant for Idemma, told EWTN News “the overwhelming majority” of obligations were paid, and acknowledged “a limited number of contractor accounts that remain under review or resolution.”

He said the company is “firmly committed to honoring our contractual obligations and resolving legitimate outstanding amounts.” He said Idemma plans to “make substantial progress toward resolving the remaining matters by year-end.”

On Sept. 10, Aldeguer said Idemma would reach out to every subcontractor “today” to “ensure they have received our recent communications and are aware of the latest updates.”

The Pentagon referred an inquiry by EWTN News to the military service departments, which oversee the contracts.

Contractor describes worsening payment lag

Paulette Padua began working as a Catholic religious education coordinator at Beale Air Force Base in California in 2013, initially as an independent contractor. In 2020, Padua was underbid by Idemma, which took over the contract but kept her in the role.

Initially, Padua said payments came as agreed upon, but “something happened” in 2025 and “payment became later and later every month.” Her contract ended in September, and she said there is still more than $8,000 in outstanding payments owed to her.

“I kept having to beg for my pay,” she said, and was “sending constant, constant emails” to the company to receive her payments. An email chain that Padua shared with EWTN News shows an Idemma employee repeatedly promising to complete the payments, but with her responding that only partial payments were being made.

Padua said Idemma promised to pay her back in increments in 2026, but she only received a $200 check. She said the company no longer responds to her emails about payments, complaining that “they just ghost [me].”

“It was causing me so much stress that it was making me sick so at a certain point I had to let go and let God have his way,” Padua said. “I can’t let them give me a heart attack.”

Padua, who was crying when recalling the situation, said losing payments “was very difficult physically, emotionally, and financially,” adding: “I worked for them for so long and I love that military community and I was good at my job and just to be done so dirty it feels terrible.”

She said she was “counting on” those payments and was reassured “you’re going to get paid.”

“Should I tell that to my mortgage company? For my car loans? For my bills?” she asked.

Another subcontractor who said she faced similar issues is Dianne Hodges, who had two contracts with Idemma, one of which was paid late and the other which is still not paid off. She said most of it was paid off by June 2026, about a year after she’d completed the initial contract.

Hodges said they still owe her $3,200 for the other contract she worked but that Idemma did not respond to her most recent emails in August about the remaining balance, saying “they’ve gone radio silent on me” and worrying “I guess I’ll never see it.”

“It’s been a nightmare,” Hodges said. “It’s been an absolute nightmare.”

Hodges said the delayed payments led to trouble with creditors and late fees on credit cards that she couldn’t pay off. She had to pull money out of her 401K to pay her bills and shop for Christmas gifts in 2024.

“It was tough for me sometimes to make ends meet,” she said, adding that when she called Idemma about the financial struggles she faced that year, “I broke down in tears, I was telling them this is not how a business works.”

Morgan Loftis, who worked as a director of religious education at the Marine Corps Air Station New River from September 2025 through May 2026, told EWTN News she is also still owed thousands of dollars in payments from Idemma.

Loftis said she was owed $12,300 but was only paid $4,875, which leaves $7,425 unpaid.

In May 2026, before she left the role, she said Idemma “offered to pay me in full … if I stayed onto the next year because they were about to lose the contract.” She said she considered the offer and requested “an actual payment plan in writing” but never received one. Now, she said “they won’t take my calls.”

“I think they know our numbers and they’re just not going to respond,” she said, referring to the subcontractors who are still owed money.

Loftis said she took the role even though she heard other subcontractors were not getting paid, but “I wanted there to be a faith formation program and it looked like there wasn’t going to be one.”

Yet, as she and her husband are expecting their fifth child and bought a new car, she said, “it would be really nice to have had the full pay. That could really alleviate how hard that car payment hits.”

Archbishop Broglio: Allegations ‘deeply troubling’

Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, expressed concern about the lack of payments.

“The archdiocese … has no contractual or business relationship with Idemma, which operates under direct contract with the federal government,” Broglio said in a statement to EWTN News.

“Even so, the allegations of late or missed payments, if true, are deeply troubling,” he said. “Idemma has a moral responsibility to meet its payroll obligations in a timely fashion. I strongly encourage the company to do so.”

In email exchanges about the missed payments, Idemma responded to the specific cases of the three subcontractors who spoke with EWTN News.

For Hodges, Aldeguer noted that one contract was “recently cleared and paid in full” and said “payments have continued to be made toward the remaining balance, and we have also added interest.”

For Padua, he said Idemma has “agreed to pay interest, which we also confirmed to her in writing.” He said in her situation, “we agreed to pay her more than what we received under the contract” because she was the chaplainʼs first choice. He said: “This arrangement worked until our other live music business was essentially wiped out by COVID.”

For Loftis, Aldeguer said “we are still verifying the amounts owed” and “she should have received a request to upload her invoices related to the contract.”

“Each situation is different, and we are making our best efforts to get everything cleared as soon as possible, with interest being applied to the final remaining balances where agreed,” Aldeguer said. “Ultimately, we are a small team that is extremely dedicated to getting these matters resolved, even in situations where we ourselves sustained significant losses on the underlying contracts.”

He said Idemma has implemented a centralized invoice-submission process for contractors with unresolved accounts to collect outstanding invoices and documents in one place to compare them to their records, identify discrepancies, and resolve outstanding balances.

Aldeguer requested that EWTN News delay publication while the company worked to resolve outstanding contractor accounts, saying recent progress wasnʼt being reflected.

“I really enjoy the gift of a Black Catholicism, Black Catholic spirituality, and it certainly does have a place in the universal Church,” said Boxie, an auxiliary bishop of Washington.

Boxie is a former lawyer and graduate of Vanderbilt University and Harvard Law School. He is now the youngest bishop in the United States.

“The last time that an African American bishop had been ordained was 10 years prior. When I was appointed a couple of months ago, I became the second African American bishop in the entire United States,” Boxie explained in an interview with “Vatican Access,” a Catholic News Service podcast.

“We have a total of four active Black bishops, but there are only two African American bishops,” he said. “We need Black bishops in the United States … And I am OK with being a voice for the Black community that needs to be in the hierarchy of the Church.”

When asked why there are so few Black bishops, Boxie said: “The short answer is racism.”

“People may not want to hear that. People may not agree with that. But the short answer is racism.”

“For a long time, Black men were not accepted or allowed in seminary,” he said. “We had the first recognized African American priest, Father Augustus Tolton, Venerable Augustus Tolton, whose cause for canonization is currently underway ... But it took so much more than an arm and a leg for him to even be … allowed to study for the priesthood.”

“So after him, it was a while before dioceses, and bishops, and religious communities would accept African American men. And when they did accept them, they experienced racism and discrimination and injustice and all the things that we would not associate, or should not associate with, the Church.”

Racism within the Church

Boxie shared his own personal experience with racism in the Church, even during his time in seminary.

“There was a time in seminary where my next-door neighbor … had a Confederate flag in their room and … I was totally taken aback by that,” Boxie said.

“I would never go in his room … We would talk outside in the hall. I wouldnʼt go in his room as long as he had that flag up,” Boxie said.

“Eventually he did take it down and he eventually discerned out of seminary. And so we didnʼt really talk … much about it.”

About seven years later, “during COVID, during 2020, and the summer of George Floyd … all of these things were sort of being revealed and uncovered in the United States — disparities within our country.”

During that time, he said, “I got a Facebook message from him saying that … he was working at a Catholic school with a large minority population, large number of African American students and Hispanic students.”

“He realized, for himself, how wrong that was seven years prior for him to have that Confederate flag in his room, especially at a seminary. And he wanted to have a conversation to apologize.”

“We had a really wonderful conversation” and “I accepted his apology,” Boxie said. “We had a real honest conversation about race, the Church, and how we can be healers.”

The conversation addressed “how we can help to bridge these gaps, these disparities, the misunderstanding, all the things that pull us apart, how we can in fact be healers and bridge builders in the Church,” Boxie said.

In the interview, Boxie noted other areas where Black Catholics lack presence in the Church, specifically noting “images” in Catholic churches.

“In our churches, we often only see white saints,” he said. “I have no problem with that. Thereʼs nothing wrong with that. But thatʼs not the only view, or the only image, or icon of holiness that we can aspire to.”

He noted that seven Black Catholics who lived in the United States are currently in line for canonization.

“I feel as though every parish in the United States should have images of them in their church in some form or fashion, because these were Americans who were raised and formed in this country who have an authentic … Catholic American spirituality,” he said.

The Church has the answers on race

Boxie has previously said that “culture does not have the answers” in regard to race. In his recent interview, he was asked whether the Church has the answers, to which he said that it does.

Itʼs “not just Catholic social teaching, which … Pope Leo very beautifully expresses in Magnifica Humanitas, but this goes all the way back to the very beginning … just the dignity of the human person."

“Thatʼs a core tenet of what we believe as Catholics and certainly part of the foundation for Catholic social teaching.”

It is about “the human person being made in the image and likeness of God, with an inherent dignity, an infinite dignity, a magnificent dignity that transcends race and culture and geography and language and land,” Boxie said.

“The Church has proclaimed, from the beginning, the dignity of the human person — thatʼs from her teaching, her doctrine, Scriptures. The problem is that we have not always been faithful to that.”

“When we have turned away from that, or when we have been unfaithful to that teaching and gone astray, then thatʼs when problems such as this racism have arisen,” Boxie said.

Being labeled a ‘DEI bishop’

Boxie also addressed the subject of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which he said has been “hijacked."

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are “biblical” concepts and are “part of our Catholic tradition,” he said. DEI was originally “trying to correct a number of institutional wrongs that have occurred in our country,” in employment, education, housing, healthcare, and other “disparities.”

Now, Boxie said he believes there is a “negative association” with DEI.

It is now seen as taking “something away from a white person who deserves it, who merits” and “giving it to a Black person, or a brown person, or a minority who doesnʼt deserve it, who doesnʼt merit it. Thatʼs what the association is right now, and itʼs just not true.”

“Some people may believe that I have been selected, picked, because Iʼm Black,” Boxie said about his appointment as bishop.

“Iʼve thought about this, Iʼve reflected on this. And you know what? Iʼm actually OK with that … because I think my background, my formation, my experience, even though it has been … limited, I think it has prepared me for this moment.”

“I do fundamentally believe that even though in my mind ... we never feel ready for whatever the Lord calls us to, but I know that he … has been providing the grace.”

Also, “we need Black bishops in the United States,” he said. “We need the voice of African American bishops, men in the hierarchy in the Church structure to be more of an advocate for the Black Catholic community.”

“I think that the pope has realized that this voice needs to be at the table. And what better way to have a Black Catholic voice than a Black Catholic bishop?”

“Twenty-five years later, its memory lives on; in a new skyline, in simple plaques and great memorials, and in the photographs of first responders who were lost, still displayed outside of firehouses and police stations,” Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York said in a statement.

“We remember those who died and the extraordinary courage, service, sacrifice, and compassion that followed,” Hicks said.

Hicks will celebrate an invitation-only Vigil Mass on Sept. 10 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to commemorate all those affected by the terrorist attacks. It also will be available via livestream.

The archdiocese reported the Mass will remember those who died as a result of the tragedy and mourn with their loved ones.

In honor of the anniversary, the archdiocese also shared words from Cardinal Edward Egan, who served as New Yorkʼs archbishop in 2001 and died in 2015.

“We will not pretend that words can deal with this adequately. The healing will take time, as it always does,” Egan said. “Still, we insist that the extraordinary goodness of our people has marched alongside the pain and the hurt.”

“Amidst the tragedy, the sadness and the grief, there was this real genuine kindness and fraternal love in the city of New York of all places,” Bishop John Bonnici of Rochester, New York, previously said in an interview with the diocese’s news publication.

“The Lord was able to use people to reach out to others and allow for the healing that was so necessary,” said Bonnici, who served as a priest in New York at the time of the attack.

In the nation’s capital, the faithful also will gather to remember those who died. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Archdiocese for the Military Services,  USA, will celebrate Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., inside its Crypt Church.

The Mass will “honor the brave first responders and members of our Armed Forces who answered the nation’s call in its aftermath, and entrust to the mercy of God all affected by that tragic day,” the basilica reported.

It will be held at the 5:15 p.m. on Sept. 11 and will be livestreamed.

President of U.S. bishops encourages commitment to be ‘instruments of peace’

Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City invited Catholics to join “in prayer for the victims taken from us in acts of unjustifiable violence 25 years ago at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania.”

“In a special way, we lovingly embrace in prayer the victims’ families and friends, who still mourn the irretrievable loss of their loved ones on that day,” said Coakley, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

“We also remember the first responders and emergency workers, so many who gave their lives in selfless acts of courage,” he said in the statement.

Coakley said that amid the fear and uncertainty following the attacks, “our faith lifted us up and sustained us,” as the nation turned to God in prayer with “a new intensity and a sense of unity.”

“As conflicts intensify around the world, let us renew our commitment to be Christ’s instruments of peace in an increasingly fractured and divided world,” Coakley said.

He echoed Pope Leo XIV, who said peace “is more than just a goal, it is a presence and a journey.”

Bishops offer personal reflections of 9/11 attacks

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, who was then the bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut, reflected on Sept. 11, calling it an “unthinkable morning.”

After learning about the attacks, “I quickly realized that many of my parishioners worked in the World Trade Center,” Lori wrote in an article for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

“Driven by an urgent need to be with my flock, I arranged to offer Mass at St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport. As the hours unfolded, I also celebrated unannounced, yet well attended, Masses at St. John’s in Stamford and St. Thomas Aquinas in Fairfield.”

Throughout the day, Lori met “incoming trains from New York, simply to stand with commuters emerging dazed and traumatized by what they had witnessed,” he said.

Lori also said he checked local hospitals for burn victims but realized “the vast majority had not survived.”

“What followed was a relentless, agonizing search through the rubble,” Lori said. “As names were identified, the agonizing weeks of funerals began. I sat with spouses, children and parents trying to make sense of the unimaginable.”

“Nearly 3,000 souls perished that day, including 343 firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers and 55 military personnel, followed by thousands more responders whose later illnesses stemmed from their selfless recovery efforts at Ground Zero,” he said.

“To truly honor those we lost and the legendary courage of our first responders, we must never forget,” Lori said. “Let no one believe that terrorism or violence can ever resolve injustice.”

Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport also recalled his experience and what his community taught him afterward.

“Twenty-five years is long enough for a wound to close into a scar, and long enough for a generation to grow up knowing that morning only as a chapter in a textbook. It is not nearly long enough for the families I serve,” Caggiano said.

“In Fairfield County the loss has never been abstract. Our trains carried neighbors into those towers, and that evening they came back with empty seats,” he said.

“In the years since, I have sat with some of them: parents who lost children, children who were infants then and are grown now, colleagues who still wonder why they were late to work that day,” he said.

Caggiano said they have taught him numerous lessons, including “that resilience is not the same thing as moving on” and “that fear must not be allowed to govern us.”

“The third lesson is the hardest, and I offer it carefully,” Caggiano said. “It is mercy.”

“It is not forgetting, excusing, or indifference to justice. Justice without mercy becomes vengeance, and mercy without justice becomes indulgence. Forgiveness begins with a full acknowledgment of the wound and then refuses to let that wound dictate the rest of a life,” he said.

“It is not a feeling that arrives one morning but a deliberate decision, sometimes one that must be made again and again over years,” he said.

Ukrainian Catholic bishops: ‘What is the legacy of September 11?’

The Ukrainian Catholic Bishops of the United States issued a pastoral letter   about the attack and the legacy it left.

The bishops said Christians must do more than remember. They asked: “What is the legacy of September 11? What have we learned? What can that terrible day teach us today?”

The tragedy “confronts us with the terrible reality of the capacity of fallen humanity for evil,” they said. “When hatred is allowed to take possession of the human heart, when another person is no longer seen as a child of God but as an enemy to be destroyed, the consequences can be horrifying.”

Sept. 11 also revealed “an even greater capacity for goodness, courage, compassion, sacrifice and love,” the bishops wrote.

“We saw strangers helping strangers. We saw firefighters climbing stairways toward almost certain death. We saw ordinary people performing extraordinary acts of courage. We saw communities opening their doors, people donating blood, churches filling with worshippers, and a nation and the entire world coming together in grief and solidarity,” he said.

“Even in the midst of tragedy, God gives us opportunities to become instruments of His love,” they said.

The bishops concluded with the words of St. Paul: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Chad Pecknold, who has taught theology at The Catholic University of America (Catholic University) since 2008, is now the principal director of public outreach for the department’s Office of Public Engagement.

In a statement provided to the National Catholic Register, the sister news partner of EWTN News, Pecknold said he was “excited” to confirm he had taken the position.

“It is truly an honor to serve my country in this capacity,” he added.

The Department of Homeland Security was established in 2003 in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and is responsible for protecting the United States against terrorist attacks and other threats to its security. The department also serves as the enforcement arm of U.S. immigration policy, overseeing both U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

According to Pecknold’s LinkedIn page, he is “on leave for public service” from Catholic University. His profile also describes his new position as focused on “cultural outreach” and indicates that he began the role in August.

The Catholic theologian’s appointment to the department comes amid ongoing clashes between the U.S. bishops and the Trump administration over immigration enforcement.

The Trump administration has prioritized curbing illegal immigration, including carrying out a mass deportation campaign, securing the border, and making legal immigration and asylum claims more selective and difficult.

In response, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops took the rare step of issuing a joint statement in November 2025, expressing opposition to “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and calling for an end to “dehumanizing rhetoric and violence” against both immigrants and law enforcement.”

Shortly after, Pope Leo XIV commented on immigration enforcement in the U.S., urging those involved “to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have,” while following legal protocols.

Views on immigration

On the issue of immigration, Pecknold has consistently argued that defending the country’s borders is not in contradiction with Catholic teaching. Rather, he argues, it is necessary to achieve the common good.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, he told EWTN News in 2023, “teaches that nations have the right to borders and self-definition, so there is no sense in which Catholic teaching supports the progressive goal of ‘open borders.’”

“There is a ‘duty of care’ which is owed to those fleeing from danger,” he said, “but citizenship is not owed to anyone who can make it across a national border, and illegal entry or asylum cannot be taken as a debt of citizenship.”

In a recent essay for The American Mind, Pecknold took issue with the U.S. bishops’ amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court in defense of birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented migrants.

In the article, Pecknold argues that in asserting that every child has a “natural right” to citizenship, the bishops are committing a “logical fallacy.” They are confusing, he writes, “conventional rights — how a nation determines who is and is not eligible for citizenship — with natural rights, which come from God and which inhere in human beings as such.”

Pecknold has also endorsed a February statement released by a Christian think tank in Hungary that contends that “mass deportations may be a legitimate response to mass migration.”

And in April 2024, amid Catholic criticism of a Texas state law that gave local authorities authorization to make immigration-related arrests, Pecknold cited St. Thomas Aquinas’ theology as a basis for immigration restrictions, noting that Aquinas distinguished showing hospitality to wayfarers from offering permanent resettlement.

“Every human being having dignity does not immediately and obviously supersede the sovereignty of nations,” Pecknold told EWTN News at the time. “Statesmen have a sacred duty to safeguard the political common good of their country, and this will sometimes mean restricting who can legally enter and remain in their countries.”

Postliberal theologian

The Catholic University professor is part of what some refer to as the “postliberal” movement, which contends that American politics have been overly focused on individual liberty at the expense of the common good. Pecknold co-founded the Substack “Postliberal Order” with Notre Dame political science professor Patrick Deneen and Harvard constitutional law scholar Adrian Vermeule.

Pecknold is also known to be close to Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert and self-described postliberal. The background image of the professor’s X social media profile is a photo of Pecknold with Deneen and Vance.

Pecknold is the author of several books that examine cultural and political questions through the lens of St. Augustine’s philosophy and theology, including “Transforming Postliberal Theology” (2005), “The Promise of Scriptural Reasoning” (2006), “Time, Liturgy, and the Politics of Redemption” (2008), and “Christianity and Politics” (2010). 

In a roundtable published in the Register in 2023, Pecknold argued that Catholics have a duty to engage in politics.

“Catholics who are well-formed by the laws of the heavenly city must pray and work for the peace of our very troubled country — for even the nations are restless until they rest in God. Catholics have a duty to intercede, to cure, and to govern,” Pecknold said.

It is not clear what Pecknold’s duties will be as director of public outreach at the federal department. The agency did not respond to a request for an explanation of his new role in time for publication, and Pecknold did not respond to a request for an interview.

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

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops joined with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission in filing an amicus brief in support of Daniel Grand, who is petitioning the high court to rule in his favor in a legal dispute with the city of University Heights, Ohio.

Grand filed a lawsuit against the city in September 2022 after the city blocked his efforts to convene a minyan, or Jewish prayer group, of about a dozen friends at his home.

A federal district court dismissed his case on the grounds of a legal concept known as “finality,” a legal principle requiring property owners to obtain a land-use decision from local officials before bringing certain federal court challenges. A federal appeals court also ruled against Grand in the dispute.

In June the Supreme Court said it would consider the finality question. Grand is being represented by the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom.

In their filing, the U.S. bishops and the Baptist leaders said the lower courts erred by misapplying certain finality standards to Grand’s case.

“Forcing a religious plaintiff to exhaust an administrative process before vindicating his rights does not prevent premature adjudication; it imposes the very burden the Constitution forbids,” the religious groups said.

Grand’s religious liberty objections are clear regardless of the outcome of the administrative process, the leaders said.

“His rights are priceless and he has already been prevented from praying and continues to be prevented from praying,” they said, describing the injury to his religious rights as “complete” and “immediately knowable.”

The alleged misapplication of the “finality” rule, they said, requires plaintiffs to “complete a potentially years-long administrative process and wait for a final adverse decision even though the act of subjecting [their] religious practice to that process is itself the constitutional and statutory injury.”

The bishops and the Baptist convention urged the court to reverse the lower court rulings, arguing that religious objectors have standing to bring a lawsuit “as soon as a credible threat arises.”

Grand in his filing with the Supreme Court argued that the finality rule offers “a playbook for government-sponsored religious discrimination.”

Numerous other groups, meanwhile, have filed amicus briefs in support of Grand’s case, including the Religious Freedom Institute, the American Hindu Coalition, the American Muslim League, the American Association of Jewish Lawyers, and several others.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa officially launched the forum, “Within Your Gates: The Forum for the Universal Vocation of Jerusalem,” on Sept. 7, according to a university press release. The launch event took place at the university’s academic center in Jerusalem.

“The forum will produce applied interdisciplinary research rooted in Jerusalem’s particular realities and oriented toward questions of daily life that resonate beyond the city and the surrounding region, exploring themes such as the theological significance of Jerusalem, the cityʼs universal vocation, the language of conflict and reconciliation, and agency under conditions of constraint,” the release said.

The forum will be led by Daniel Schwake, director of Notre Dame’s Jerusalem campus, while Pizzaballa will serve as chair on the forum’s Board of Promoters.

Ave Maria University celebrates partnership with Cistercian community

Students and faculty at Ave Maria University’s Ireland campus will celebrate the start of a budding friendship with the Cistercian community at Mount Melleray Abbey with a Mass on Sept. 20. 

“Home to a Cistercian monastic community for almost 200 years, Mount Melleray Abbey now enters a new chapter through a partnership between the Cistercian community and Ave Maria University,” the university said in a Sept. 9 press release. “Building upon the Abbey’s enduring tradition of prayer, work and hospitality, the partnership will see Mount Melleray welcome Ave Maria University students as part of the University’s new Ireland study-abroad program beginning this autumn.”

The Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan of Waterford and Lismore.

“Mount Melleray Abbey has been a place of prayer and hospitality for generations, and we are honored to have the opportunity to contribute to the next chapter in its remarkable history,” Daniel Schreck, chief strategy officer for Ave Maria University, said in the release. “The Abbey forms part of the cultural and spiritual heritage of Ireland, and we take very seriously the responsibility entrusted to us through our partnership with the Cistercian community. The Mass on Sept. 20 represents an important moment for the Cistercians, Ave Maria University, and our many friends in Ireland as we work together to preserve the living tradition of Mount Melleray.”

The launch of the program this fall comes after Ave Maria acquired the abbey following its January 2025 closure due to dwindling numbers among the Cistercian community.

National Catholic Educational Association launches faith-based STEM series

The National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) and the professional development organization Eduscape are launching a summit series to promote the integration of religion into STEM education for Catholic schools across the country.

The “STREAM Made Simple Summit Series” is a professional development program for Catholic school teachers and principals that “adds religion to the familiar STEAM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math,” according to a Sept. 8 press release.

“Summits will be held across the country with many hosted in partnership with a Catholic diocese and each designed to serve up to 300 educators,” the release said.

“The barrier for many Catholic schools has never been conviction. It has been capacity. Teachers are often asked to lead integrated instruction they were never trained to deliver,” the release said. “The STREAM Made Simple approach starts from the opposite end: it invests in teachers first rather than equipment, and it is built so that a school can begin on Monday with the classrooms already in place.”

University of Mary to host fifth annual St. Gianna Medical Professionals Conference

The University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, has announced that the theme of its annual Catholic medical bioethics conference will be “Accompanying the Vulnerable: Catholic Bioethics in a Time of Technological Change.”

“Advances in medicine and technology must always serve the person, especially those who are most vulnerable,” Mary Dockter, dean of the College of Health Professions at the University of Mary, said in an Aug. 31 press release. “While our graduates must be competent in technological advancements, our hope is that they always ask themselves, just because we can do something, should we?”

The Dec. 4-5 conference will feature nine speakers, including Marilyn Coors, associate professor emerita of bioethics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; Mariele Courtois, director of the Center for Technology and Human Dignity and assistant professor of moral theology at Benedictine College; and Natalie King, a palliative medicine physician, according to the release.

The speakers will address artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, end-of-life care, reproductive loss, mental health, and the relationship between technology and human dignity.

Viewers will get a unique look into places like Antioch, the birthplace of Christianity, the underground cities of Cappadocia, Ephesus, Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), and other key spots where the early Church was formed.

Stotts is a longtime on-location storyteller who has spent more than 20 years exploring the world, most notably in his series “Drive Thru History” aired on TBN. With a deep passion for the story of Christianity and how it has spread across the world, he brings viewers face-to-face with the places that have shaped the faith and invites audiences to rediscover the important figures and saints who impacted modern Christianity.

In an interview with EWTN News, Stotts explained that during his time doing “Drive Thru History” he “experienced firsthand the impact that Christian history can have.”

“In ‘The Road Less Traveled,’ we go even further — down forgotten roads and off the beaten path — to come face-to-face with the lives of saints, martyrs, and heroes of the Catholic past. Seeing their witness has the power to ignite our own faith in powerful ways today,” he said. “We wanted to explore this history on location and inspire viewers through a fast-paced, adventurous learning experience.”

The travel-show host explained that the first season of “The Road Less Traveled” begins “where the Gospel first spread — Syrian Antioch, where believers were first called ‘Christians’ and where the Cave Church of St. Peter still stands.”

“From there, we follow the roads to the underground churches of Cappadocia, then to the breathtaking ruins of ancient Ephesus, where St. Paulʼs preaching turned the cityʼs paganism upside down. Next, we travel to the seven churches of Revelation and explore each of the letters St. John wrote to them in the Book of Revelation,” Stotts explained.

While in ancient Myra, the show uncovers the story of St. Nicholas, the fourth-century bishop whose legacy lives on today as Santa Claus.

Viewers are then taken to ancient Nicaea, where the Church formulated Christianityʼs most foundational creed.

“Finally, we end the series in ancient Constantinople — present-day Istanbul — where we stand in the breathtaking Hagia Sophia and discover how the Christian faith helped shape history itself,” Stotts said.

Recalling one of the most impactful moments he had while recording the series, Stotts spoke about descending nearly 200 feet to the lowest level of Derinkuyu in ancient Cappadocia.

“There we explored what was once a hidden, rock-hewn, cross-shaped church— carved entirely out of volcanic rock,” he recalled. “It was inspiring to see the lengths, and depths, that persecuted Christians were willing to go to practice their faith. I came away challenged to live my own faith with that same kind of courage today.”

He added: “It can be easy to take the faith weʼve inherited for granted. But exploring history has the power to give us a fresh appreciation for the faith we practice today.”

Stotts said he hopes viewers “will not only see the world-shaping impact of the early Christians but also be inspired to pattern our own lives after their courageous witness.”

“The Road Less Traveled” debuts on Sept. 17 and can be watched for free on EWTN+ and on EWTN.com.

The mother, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, wanted her son, C.F., to start at Waverly School in Eastchester this month and is seeking a religious exemption to required vaccines. New York dropped religious exemptions from school vaccine rules in 2019 after a measles outbreak, however, though medical exemptions remain.

Doe had asked the Supreme Court for a temporary injunction so C.F. could start school as the fight continues in court.

Two other courts had already denied her request for a temporary injunction. A federal judge in New York and then a three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit panel turned her down. The application was then presented to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the circuit justice for the 2nd Circuit, who referred it to the full Supreme Court, which denied it. Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted it.

The unsigned order does not address the case’s merits, and Doe’s underlying appeal remains pending in the 2nd Circuit.

State officials have said a religious carve-out would undercut efforts to keep disease from spreading among children, pointing to an earlier appeals court ruling that left the vaccine law in place.

Doe, who is Catholic, says the state policy puts her faith and her child’s schooling at odds. In an April statement she gave the school, she wrote that her beliefs now “require me to categorically refuse vaccination for myself and for my children.”

Referring to the abortions from which fetal cells were taken to produce the original vaccines, she said: “The taking of an innocent human life is a grave sin. My Catholic beliefs have always held this.” She said that for her and her son, vaccination would be “a genuine, serious sin.”

“I will not do it,” she stated.

She also expressed serious reservations about other aspects of vaccine development: “Defiling the blood by mixing it with the blood of animals, with the remains of aborted human beings, or with foreign biological material, violates God’s Word,” she said, according to her statement of religious beliefs filed in the case. “Vaccination injects biological material derived from unclean sources directly into the bloodstream. My faith forbids this.”

Church teaching on conscience and vaccination

While the Church does not teach that the use of biological materials from nonhuman animals is categorically wrong, it absolutely condemns abortion and the use of tissue from aborted fetuses used to create the original cell lines. It teaches that a parent may receive or give a child a vaccine developed with those cell lines when there is no alternative and there is a serious health reason. The vaccine recipient’s participation in the evil act of abortion, the Church teaches, is “remote,” and therefore permitted.

However, in the 2008 instruction Dignitas Personae, the Church said that Catholics utilizing vaccines have “a duty” to let drugmakers and their healthcare providers know they oppose the way the vaccines were developed and demand vaccines created without the use of aborted fetal cells.

A 2020 note from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says vaccination “is not, as a rule, a moral obligation and that, therefore, it must be voluntary.” Those who refuse for reasons of conscience, it adds, should take other steps so they do not spread disease.

New York law has a provision that children unvaccinated for medical reasons must stay at home during outbreaks, and Doe agreed to abide by that if granted an exemption.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a person must not be forced to act against a conscience formed well through Scripture, reason, and Church teaching, even when others would make a different choice. Forcing one to act against his or her conscience could be a sin against charity, which calls for others to respect the consciences of others.

The catechism also teaches that “[m]an has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. ‘He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience.’”

In a legal filing to the Supreme Court, the USCCB and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) argued that stronger due process protections would help uphold the human dignity of noncitizens and safeguard the common good, based on Catholic teaching.

The bishops sent the petition in relation to the ongoing case Genalo v. Keisy G.M., in which a U.S. permanent resident from the Dominican Republic argues that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) violated his Fifth Amendment right to due process.

Keisy G.M., whose full name is not public, was detained for 21 months. Although he did appear before a judge, he did not receive a bond hearing to determine whether he could be released on bond.

In spite of his permanent residency status, he faced deportation proceedings after he was convicted of felonious assault. He was later pardoned by the State of New York, ending the threat of deportation.

Dignity of the human person

In their legal brief, the bishops argued that due process protections are consistent with the law, American tradition, and Catholic teaching, saying “executive detention has never been wholly insulated from judicial scrutiny,” adding that “this accords with Catholic social teaching, which recognizes both the legitimate authority of the state and the dignity of the individual.”

“Indefinite confinement without individualized review by a neutral tribunal is anathema to our constitutional system and the ordered liberty it enshrines,” the bishops said. “The consequences of abandoning that system are severe and concrete.”

“Prolonged detention can cost people their jobs, homes, health, and the ability to participate meaningfully in their own legal proceedings,” they said. “It can separate parents from children, destabilize entire families, and inflict harms that cannot be undone by eventual release. Although such detention may at times be necessary to further important state interests, such as ensuring public safety, it must be subject to justification before a neutral tribunal.”

In the court filing, they cited Pope John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical Pacem in Terris, which teaches that “the common good is best safeguarded when personal rights and duties are guaranteed.”

Quoting from the document, they said authorities must “ensure that these rights are recognized, respected, co-ordinated, defended and promoted, and that each individual is enabled to perform his duties more easily” because “safeguard[ing] the inviolable rights of the human person” and “facilitat[ing] the performance of his duties” is “the principal duty of every public authority.”

The bishops also quoted Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s secretary for relations with states, from his statement during the general debate at the opening of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly’s high‑level week.

In his statement, Gallagher said the “principles of equality before the law, accountability, the equitable application of the law, the separation of [four] powers, legal certainty, due process, the prevention of arbitrariness, as well as transparency in both procedural and legal matters, must always be observed.”

“Those principles,” the bishops continued, “are effectuated by procedures that require the government to justify significant deprivations of liberty based on individualized circumstances rather than categorical assumptions.”

Oral arguments for the case are scheduled for Oct. 13. Keisy G.M. is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other civil liberties organizations.

The case before the high court, Viramontes v. Cook County, concerns a regulation enacted by Cook County, Illinois, banning more than 100 types of semiautomatic weapons, including the popular AR-15 platform.

Two plaintiffs, Cutberto Viramontes and Christopher Khaya, sued to dispute the regulations under the Second and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit argues that the Supreme Court should rule on the case “to guarantee fundamental Second Amendment rights and to address the confusion in the lower courts” regarding Supreme Court precedent.

In their amicus brief regarding the legal dispute, the U.S. bishops urge the court to “[preserve] the traditional authority of political communities to regulate weapons.”

The “autonomy of local authority” is a significant part of “America’s historical tradition of federalism,” the bishops write, comparing it to the long-standing Catholic principle of subsidiarity, which holds that the authority closest to a local need is best suited to tackle the issue.

The principle of federalism does not allow for the wholesale redefinition of the Second Amendment, the bishops write. But, they argue, a “uniform constitutional standard need not require uniform firearm policy.”

Guns have historically been regulated differently throughout the U.S. depending on the locality, the bishops say, and the U.S. Constitution “does not require every community to exercise … its authority to regulate weapons identically.”

The prelates further argue that modern advances in weaponry mean firearms like AR-15s are “fundamentally dissimilar” from the standards of the 18th century; such weapons are “dangerous and unusual,” the bishops suggest, and are thus open to reasonable regulation.

Though the issue was brought to trial due to the local regulation, the ultimate question before the Supreme Court is whether the Second Amendment “guarantee[s] the right to possess [the] AR-15 platform and similar semiautomatic rifles.”

In the past 20 years the Supreme Court has significantly affirmed Second Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution, including in the landmark 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller, which upheld the right to own a firearm unconnected with service in a state militia.

Those rights were broadly expanded in subsequent Supreme Court rulings such as 2010’s McDonald v. Chicago and the 2022 decision NYSRPA v. Bruen. The latter decision upheld a constitutional right to carry firearms for self-defense.

In the 2024 decision United States v. Rahimi, on the other hand, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment does allow for individuals to be disarmed if they have been found to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of someone else.

Diocesan officials learned in June that Father Alex Vargas was the subject of several “serious allegations,” Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez said in a Sept. 5 letter to the diocese.

The diocese reported the allegations to law enforcement, Rodríguez said, after which it launched its own independent investigation headed by an investigating agency.

That investigation was ultimately presented to the diocese’s adult allegation board; Rodríguez noted that there were no credible allegations leveled against Vargas regarding the abuse of minors.

The diocesan board determined it credible that Vargas had committed sexual misconduct, “financial malfeasance,” abuse of power, and several violations of the diocesan code of conduct.

Vargas has been deemed unsuitable for ministry “for the time being,” the bishop said; his ministerial faculties “shall continue to be withdrawn,” he noted.

The priest “remains innocent until proven guilty,” the prelate continued, adding that Vargas will be allowed to participate in a judicial process at a future date.

Another priest has been designated the administrator of St. Thomas More Parish where Vargas previously served, Rodriguez said, while members of the Diocesan Healing Intervention Team had already been sent to the parish “to offer support, answer questions, and provide a compassionate space for conversation and healing.”

Vargas had been installed as pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in July 2025. He had previously served as a parochial administrator and parochial vicar there.

Coakley, who serves as the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), wrote the letter due to his “deep pastoral concern in relation to the growing number of Haitians being forcibly repatriated to Haiti from the United States.”

The archbishop detailed the violence in Haiti, including a fatal attack that took place in the nationʼs capital of Port-au-Prince in August.

“Recently, at least 47 people were brutally murdered, more than 20 injured, and over 50 kidnapped in an unconscionable act of violence perpetrated by gang members in Port-au-Prince,” Coakley said.

“Perhaps worst of all, the victims were displaced families—young children among them—taking shelter at a church,” Coakley said.

Due to the attacks, and following the end of temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians living in the United States, Coakley urged Trump to exercise his authority under the Constitution to delay deportations for Haitians living and working in the United States.

“I very much wish this recent and tragic example of human life being extinguished, virtually with impunity, was an irregularity in Haiti. Unfortunately, it is not,” Coakley said.

“I implore you to avoid further endangering innocent human life by ceasing the deportation of large numbers of people to Haiti at this time, particularly while there is not an adequate system in place to provide for their safe and orderly reception and reintegration,” he said.

The archbishop echoed the words of Pope Leo XIV following the attacks.

Speaking to the press in Castel Gandolfo on Aug. 30, Pope Leo said: “I express my spiritual closeness to the victims and their families and call for the immediate release of all hostages.”

“I make a heartfelt appeal to all those in positions of authority to take concrete steps in order to ensure the safety of the population and put an end to all forms of violence,” the Holy Father added.

Call for ‘reform of our nation’s immigration laws’

“As citizens of this great country, we have been entrusted with a tremendous moral responsibility, and this is true most of all for you as our head of state, Mr. President,” Coakley said.

“To this end, I respectfully ask: What good is the immense wealth, prosperity, and influence with which we have been blessed as a nation if not used in service of our humanity?”

To this end, I respectfully ask: What good is the immense wealth, prosperity, and influence with which we have been blessed as a nation if not used in service of our humanity?”

Archbishop Paul Coakley

President, USCCB

While calling for a solution for Haitian nationals, Coakley said he understands “the importance of regulating immigration and enforcing federal immigration law.”

“I also acknowledge that the troubles in Haiti long precede your time in office, in addition to being complex and multifaceted,” he said.

The archbishop clarified that the call for ceased departures is for “Haitians peacefully residing in the United States,” and “individual Haitians could still be disqualified from this relief on a case-by-case basis, preserving your Administration’s ability to advance justice and public safety.”

“Beyond this short-term relief, you can be assured of the U.S. bishops’ abiding support and prayers for the long-overdue reform of our nation’s immigration laws,” Coakley said.

The U.S. bishops “pledge to continue working with your Administration and Congress to achieve this for the benefit of our country and all Americans,” Coakley said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The proposal is set out in “One Tilma, One Heart: Walking with Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Footsteps of Saint Juan Diego” and is part of the Intercontinental Guadalupe Novena’s 2025–2028 strategic plan, which aims at “a profound spiritual renewal and unity under the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

Bishops from Mexico, the U.S., and Canada each carried home tilma replicas after their historic meeting last week at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB); Bishop Oscar Cantú of San José, California; Bishop Eugenio Lira Rugarcía of Matamoros, Mexico; and Bishop Pierre Goudreault of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, Canada, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, attended the meeting.

Under the plan, each diocese in the U.S. will receive a tilma for enthronement in its cathedral followed by two years of missionary activity including pilgrimages, service, and catechesis as the image travels to parishes beginning in 2027.

The original tilma, the cactus-fiber cloak on which Mary’s image miraculously appeared on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico in 1531, remains at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

The replicated images are printed on cloth similar to the original, and those touched to the original tilma will be treated as third-class relics.

The pastoral plan presents the tilma not only as an object of devotion but also as a “living catechetical witness” meant to make Catholics messengers of hope like St. Juan Diego.

Bishop Robert Brennan of Brooklyn, New York, said at the bishops’ June plenary that a tilma for each diocese could be ordered at a low cost and that images would be presented to ordinaries in Baltimore in November for veneration in cathedrals or other sites designated by the local bishop.

After enthronement, the image is to travel through parishes and what organizers call “contemporary Tepeyacs,” or places marked by suffering, exclusion, migration, and violence. Local missionaries known as Juandieguitos will accompany the image, listen to community concerns, and help establish “sacred little houses” as sites of welcome, reconciliation, and Guadalupan formation, according to the pastoral plan.

A bilingual Order of Enthronement of the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, originally prepared by the Mexican bishops’ liturgy commission, was also posted by the USCCB. The rite envisions a solemn diocesan Mass with procession, a prayer of consecration, and a blessing of the community “under the mantle of Mary.”

The bishops noted that the effort is in preparation both for the 2031 anniversary of Mary’s apparitions at Tepeyac and for the Great Jubilee of 2033, the Church’s planned extraordinary Holy Year of Redemption, marking 2,000 years since Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection.

Citing Pope Francis’ Dec. 12, 2022, homily at the beginning of the Guadalupan novena, hoped-for fruits of the effort include the “renewal of a Christocentric faith through Marian mediation,” reconciliation of polarized communities, strengthening of Hispanic cultural identity, and a network of Marian shrines as “privileged spaces for the rebirth of hope.”

Francis said in his 2022 homily on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe that “although this horizon seems bleak and disconcerting ... this too is a propitious time of salvation, in which the Lord, through the Virgin Mother, continues to give us his Son.”

A suggested timeline has dioceses naming Guadalupan ambassadors in late 2026, initial formation in January 2027, and diocesan enthronements from February through December 2027, with pastoral follow-up continuing through 2031.

Grow the Kingdom gym opened in 2025 in the former Augustine Institute building in Greenwood Village, Colorado. Founded by Jayce Rastrelli and Hayden Dalton, the gym aims to integrate faith and fitness, teach the importance of taking care of the body as a way to serve God and family, and equip individuals to be servants of God.

Rastrelli and Dalton, who are best friends, felt inspired to open the gym after experiences they had working out at a secular gym, where they were surrounded by music, conversations, and attire that they considered immodest and inappropriate.

“I realized I had been lifting in an environment that just wasnʼt beneficial to my faith,” Rastrelli told EWTN News in an interview. “It was like a battle ground.”

Each had a background in personal training and sports. After prayer and discernment, the two friends decided to open Grow the Kingdom as a “safe space to glorify God,” where individuals “get to lift with the right purpose and know that you couldnʼt do without God.”

The gym serves people of all ages and demographics — from preteens to older adults — and even local parish priests.

Rastrelli said the gym’s members all have the “understanding that God needs to be at the center of everything that you do.”

The gym incorporates faith into fitness in other tangible ways.

“The first thing you see is going to be Our Lord giving his body for us on the cross. And then youʼre going to get to come in here and work on your body for God,” Rastrelli said.

Across from the crucifix is a large whiteboard covered with people’s names. This is the gym’s prayer intentions board, where members are encouraged to write the names of individuals they’re offering their workouts for and are keeping in prayer.

“Having that [intentions board] up there is, I would argue, the best way to automatically take yourself out of it. Youʼre now doing it for someone else. Youʼre building someone else up,” Rastrelli explained. “Youʼre allowing God to take your workout and transform it into a prayer and send it back to someone in the form of grace. So, no more ego lifting. Youʼre not doing this for yourself. Youʼre doing it for the names on the board. Youʼre doing it for the person you put up there.”

The gym also enforces a modest dress code and plays “clean and appropriate” music.

A common obstacle many face when working out, according to Rastrelli, is falling into vanity and focusing too much on one’s ego. Rastrelli said he has seen this too and admitted that he has also struggled with it in his own fitness journey.

He said he uses Scripture to explain that people’s bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and gifts from God, and that they work out to build those bodies and use them to their fullest potential.

With that in mind, Rastrelli said there are “going to be great bonuses that are going to come along with that,” and even if “aesthetic appearance” is part of those benefits, he suggested people ask themselves truthfully why they are training: “Is it just for that ego, that vanity? ‘I want to look big. I want to have this appearance.’ What are you going to use that for?”

While Rastrelli said he believes there’s nothing wrong with working out a specific muscle group, for example, but the danger “comes down to your intent.”

“Itʼs OK to want to look good for your spouse … but if your intent becomes too inwardly focused, thatʼs where the danger really comes,” he said. “‘I want to look good for my spouse.’ Thatʼs a beautiful thing. Know that itʼs from God that youʼre able to do that. Praise God that youʼre able to do that, that you have a body that is capable of pursuing difficult things.”

Rastrelli emphasized that the key is “refocusing people[’s minds] into ‘Your body is built to serve God.’”

He pointed out how this mindset can be beneficial in various aspects of a person’s life.

“To have results in the gym, to actually better your body, is going to take consistent work,” he explained. “When you’re not feeling it, you have to show up. You have to stay disciplined. So you start building on these routines and habits and they start forming into these great virtues.”

Rastrelli also noted how an understanding of delayed gratification is also developed through working out. “I think thatʼs a huge one for us in our current culture. Everyone wants something immediately — myself included. In the gym, thereʼs no immediate; itʼs consistently built,” he said.

“Itʼs the same thing when weʼre walking with God. We want that immediate fix. ‘Lord, just take this sin away from me right now. I donʼt want it anymore.’ Thatʼs not how itʼs going to work. You face that battle over and over, consistently, for you to build up those tools with God to then be able to deny it, say no to it, have that self-mastery. So I think the correlation is just so strong and it can be so evident that youʼre proving with Godʼs grace that you can do difficult things.”

Beyond the weight room

As the gym approaches its one-year anniversary, new programs are being planned to foster more growth among the community. Currently, the gym offers basic, open access as well as group training classes, which are split into an adults’ class and a class for 11- to 21-year-olds.

Soon, Rastrelli said, he will roll out eight different training programs he created, which members can access on an app. It will lead them through each exercise with a video demonstration as well as include numbers of sets and repetitions. In addition, Rastrelli will offer individualized programs created for members’ specific needs.

Grow the Kingdom will soon offer a mentorship program for 11- to 21-year-olds that will focus on “vice versus virtue training,” Rastrelli explained. The program will include a course that takes them through the four cardinal virtues as well as monthly Bible studies, virtue talks, Q&A sessions, saint studies, live seminars, and a 24/7 live community in their age group. The program will be offered to young men first until a female coach is hired.

The idea behind it is to “build this community — letʼs get them into the gym. Letʼs get this well-rounded mind, body, and soul all together and have them understand youʼre not walking this alone. Weʼre actually walking with you,” Rastrelli said.

Rastrelli said he hopes the gym will help its members “get to know their worth in Godʼs eyes.”

“I just think thereʼs so much in our culture right now that is … infiltrated with a lot of false narratives,” he said. “Coming in here, I would hope that they get to see how much God loves them. He … gave his body for us, so can we not do the same?”

The docudrama was filmed on location in Spain, Colombia, and Cape Verde and uses interviews and dramatizations to present the life of Claver, who tirelessly ministered to the spiritual and physical needs of African slaves in Cartagena, Colombia, for 40 years.

The film will air on EWTN TV and EWTN+ on Sept. 9 at 9:30 p.m. ET and re-air on Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. ET. At this time, the program will not air on YouTube.

Who was St. Peter Claver?

Born on June 26, 1580, in Catalonia, Spain, Claver grew up in a devout Catholic farming family. He attended the University of Barcelona and at age 20 joined the Jesuits.

During his studies as a novice, Claver met an older lay Jesuit brother, Alphonsus Rodriguez. It was Rodriguez who encouraged Claver to become a missionary in the Spanish colonies in the Americas.

In 1610, Claver traveled from Spain to Cartagena, Colombia, where he was ordained a priest five years later.

At that time, the African slave trade had been in place for several decades in the Americas, and Cartagena was one of the busiest slave ports in the Spanish empire.

While there, Claver witnessed the cruelty with which the slaves were treated firsthand, despite Pope Paul III’s repeated condemnations of slavery. It is estimated that tens of thousands of enslaved Africans passed through Cartagena during Claver’s ministry.

Moved by their suffering, Claver worked to bring both bodily and spiritual aid to the slaves. Despite his own health problems and the language barrier, he dedicated himself to his vocation.

Claver would meet slave ships upon arrival in the harbor and board them to care for the poorly treated passengers on board who had made the journey from Africa in diseased and cramped conditions over the course of several months. He would tend to the sick — bringing food, water, and medicine — and treat wounds and illnesses. He would immediately baptize babies and those near death.

After a slave was sold, Claver would continue to visit the individual, providing physical and spiritual support.

When it came to catechesis, due to the language barrier, Claver used pictorial representations of the Gospel stories he was teaching.

Throughout his ministry, Claver lived on small amounts of food and sleep. His lifestyle led to several miraculous occurrences, including when he healed the sick with the touch of his cloak or appeared surrounded by a supernatural light during his hospital visits.

After suffering for several years from poor health, Claver died on Sept. 8, 1654. He had baptized and taught the faith to more than 300,000 slaves during his 40 years in Colombia.

He was beatified by Pius IX on July 16, 1850, and canonized along with his friend St. Alphonsus Rodriguez on Jan. 15, 1888, by Pope Leo XIII.

Claver is the patron saint of enslaved peoples, African missions, and interracial justice, and one of several patron saints of Colombia.

California law does not allow school districts to adopt policies that require teachers and school administrators to tell parents when their child identifies as transgender and wants to be treated as the opposite sex. The law does not forbid voluntary notification by a teacher.

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court halted enforcement of the state law, warning it cuts parents out of the conversation. The 6-3 decision did not offer a final ruling on the constitutionality of the law but found that it likely violates constitutionally protected rights to freedom of religion and to direct the upbringing of one’s children, and sent the case back down to the lower courts.

A lower court’s permanent injunction that blocks the law indefinitely is in effect, and the case is in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

The parents, represented by the Catholic nonprofit legal group The Thomas More Society, are getting support from 17 state attorneys general, five senators, and dozens of organizations that filed legal briefs with the appellate court in their defense.

Paul M. Jonna, special counsel for Thomas More Society, said in a statement that the legal briefs “all converge on the same point,” which is that the law will not survive “strict scrutiny,” which is the highest standard of review, required in cases when constitutional rights are at risk.

“Parents, not school bureaucrats, have the right to raise their children and to direct their religious upbringing,” Jonna said. “That means a school may not facilitate a childʼs gender transition without their knowledge and consent.”

Legal briefs backing parents

Five Republican senators signed on to a joint brief supporting the parents: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas; Sen. Mike Lee of Utah; Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota; Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas; and Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana.

“America’s history and tradition affirm that parents bear the primary responsibility for their children’s upbringing and have ‘natural bonds of affection’ with their children leading them to act in their children’s best interests,” the senators wrote.

“The state must presume that parents are fit to direct their children’s upbringing and education,” they wrote. “It follows that parents are also in the best position to help their children with life’s struggles. That includes mental health struggles like gender dysphoria. When children engage with their school for help regarding their gender dysphoria, the school must tell the parents.”

Republican attorneys general from 17 states also filed a brief: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

In the brief, they stated their intent is “to ensure that parents retain their fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their minor children.”

“The need for parental involvement and oversight is only more pressing when the ideology pushed by the state confuses innocent and impressionable children experiencing ‘gender dysphoria,’” they wrote.

A large coalition of more than 70 nongovernmental organizations, which includes Catholic and other Christian organizations, signed a separate brief. The signatories include Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.; the Christian Law Association; and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, along with Catholic former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

“Parents, whether religious or not, have the responsibility as well as the right to monitor the ideas to which their children are exposed and to protect them from those ideas likely to confuse and harm them,” the brief said.

“When officious school officials use their access to children absent parental supervision to instill in those children ideas to which the parents are likely to object, they subvert the trust upon which family strength, and child wellbeing, depend,” it adds.

Three legal scholars also filed a legal brief with the court: Professors Robert P. George, Melissa Moschella, and Eric A. DeGroff. George and Moschella are Catholic.

“Anglo-American law has long recognized that parents — not the state — are the primary decision-makers for their children’s medical care,” the brief said. “This reflects a considered judgment that parents are best positioned to know their children’s needs, weigh risks and benefits in light of family values, and act in their children’s interests.”

“Our legal tradition has never treated parental authority as absolute,” it added. “But the limits history has placed on that authority reflect two principles that, properly understood, reinforce rather than diminish the primacy of parental decision-making.”

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which secured a religious liberty and parental rights victory at the Supreme Court in Mahmoud v. Taylor, also filed a brief in defense of the parents, as did a parent represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, who is fighting against a similar school policy in Wisconsin.

Catholic parishioners, regardless of documentation, are permitted to miss Sunday Mass if they “reasonably fear being detained, separated from their families, or experience intimidation due to the increased immigration enforcement,” according to the decree, showing how the archdiocese is accompanying migrants.

The dispensation took effect Sept. 4 and runs through Sept. 30 unless extended. With Indianapolis added, dioceses that have issued similar decrees encompass about 3.5 million Catholics, according to the Official Catholic Directory 2025.

During the pandemic in 2020, all Catholic dioceses and archdioceses issued Mass dispensations. Canon 1245 allows a diocesan bishop or pastor to grant a dispensation from Mass obligation “for a just cause.”

“The decision to grant the dispensation at this time came as a response to requests from our pastors who work closely with our immigrant communities,” Sally Krause, the archdiocese’s director of communications, told EWTN. “They are experiencing fear and uncertainty due to an increase in immigration enforcement in Indianapolis and the surrounding areas. By granting the dispensation, we wished to express the Churchʼs solidarity and care for those who are afraid to leave their homes.”

Archbishop Charles Thompson of Indianapolis said the dispensation and his statement came after what he described as a “recent surge in immigration enforcement activity in Indiana,” which he said “has caused fear and uncertainty for many families, particularly when detention results in the sudden separation of parents and children.”

Thompson encouraged the faithful who use the dispensation to supplement with prayer, reading the Sunday readings, praying the rosary, and watching livestreamed Mass.

“Pastors and all those who minister to the faithful within the Archdiocese of Indianapolis are encouraged to attend to the spiritual care of those who must make use of this dispensation to the best of their ability, especially regarding the Sacraments of Penance and Anointing of the Sick, or the distribution of Holy Communion to the homebound,” he said.

Thompson said the dispensation applies to immigrant parishioners fearing detention, adding: “This applies even to those with proper legal documentation.”

“While recognizing the need for law enforcement to protect and defend, it is gravely concerning to witness families being torn apart,” Thompson said in the statement. “The family, the fabric of stability in our society, must be cherished and defended. The inherent dignity of being created in the image of God demands that every person be treated with dignity, compassion, and respect.”

Krause said: “It is our practice that dispensations have a specific time frame delineated for which they have legal force. One month is a measured amount of time for such a decree, and we knew that we would discern the situation again in a monthʼs time.”

Dispensations across the U.S.

The dispensation in Indianapolis marks the seventh such dispensation granted in the U.S. for migrants fearing deportation by immigration enforcement officers since the start of the Trump administration.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans and the dioceses of Columbus, Baton Rouge, Charlotte, San Bernardino, and Nashville have granted dispensations.

Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee has said he would consider granting dispensation from Mass obligations to migrants fearing deportation, should the situation in his archdiocese require it. No dispensation has been announced in Milwaukee to date.

Bishops in other dioceses along the border, including the Diocese of El Paso, the Diocese of Brownsville, and the Diocese of Tucson, have not granted dispensations but issued strong statements of condemnation over mass detentions and deportations of migrants in their respective communities.

The current number of Catholic lawmakers on Capitol Hill is slightly higher than the previous Congress, with Catholics accounting for more than 28% of the members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate. Of the Catholic members, 126 serve in the House and 24 in the Senate, according to a report from the Pew Research Center.

In this special report, EWTN News Capitol Hill correspondent Erik Rosales spoke with various Catholic members of Congress about their faith and how they live it in their work.

Sen. Eric Schmitt

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, grew up a cradle Catholic and said his parents instilled in him the importance of having a personal relationship with Christ at a young age.

“I grew up in St. Louis, which is a very Catholic town and has been referred to as the Rome of the West because per capita, very Catholic,” Schmitt told Rosales.

A “conversation back home, it might very easily start … ‘What parish are you at? or ‘What parish did you grow up in?’” Schmitt said.

At 17, Schmitt went to a Jesuit retreat house that had a profound impact on him. Later, when his son was born with a rare genetic condition, Schmitt would often return to the Jesuits for prayer.

It “was a seed that was planted … when I was confronted with this really kind of difficult situation. I went back there, and it was a profound experience,” he said. “I go back every year. Itʼs a … weekend silent retreat. And that keeps me very rooted.”

When working busy days on the Hill, Schmitt said he looks to prayer.

“Iʼll listen to a podcast by Bishop [Robert] Barron or Father Michael Schmitz,” he said. “I think technology now too has allowed a different avenue for people to … maintain their faith and grow their faith.”

Even “if itʼs five or 10 minutes, it really does help me kind of start the day right,” Schmitt said.

Rep. John Rutherford

Rep. John Rutherford, R-Florida, also spoke about leaning on his faith when working in a hectic position, often by attending Mass and saying the rosary.

“In Ephesians 2:10, it says, ‘for we are all Godʼs workmanship, created in the image of Christ Jesus to do good work,’ which he prepared … in advance for us to do,’” Rutherford said. “So heʼs got work out there that heʼs prepared for me to do,” he continued.

While Rutherford’s Catholic faith is incorporated into his day-to-day life, he shared that was not always the case. He grew up in the United Methodist Church, but at about 14 years old, “fell away from the church,” he said.

After becoming a police officer in Jacksonville, Florida, Rutherford’s perspective on faith changed. Witnessing crimes made him question his own mortality.

“So I went back to the Bible, and I read the Bible literally cover to cover, not once but twice,” he said.

Rutherford returned to the Methodist Church, while his wife and kids attended Catholic Mass. After reading about the Methodist Churchʼs seven principles, he realized he didnʼt agree with them.

“It was a long process, but I finally read a book by Pope John Paul II, ‘Crossing the Threshold of Hope,’ and that explained where the authority of the Church is,” Rutherford said. “And how itʼs passed down through the papacy.”

After his research, and inspired by the true Church and presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, Rutherford entered the Catholic Church.

Rep. Mark Messmer

Rep. Mark Messmer, R-Indiana, said he has spent his life putting God, family, and community first.

It was during his time as a state legislator that a colleague invited Messmer and his wife to attend a Cursillo, a retreat focused on showing Christian laity how to become effective leaders and how to use the Gospel in daily life.

“It ignited a passion and a love for Christ, and a love for the Eucharist that I always said I wanted. And then it gives you the tools [for] your prayer life, study life, and evangelization, how to live that out on a daily basis,” he said.

Messmer said he stays grounded with daily Mass and his Friday morning prayer group. He and his family also all join together for a weekly group call to catch up and join for “spiritual reinforcement.”

Rep. Stephanie Bice

Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Oklahoma, converted to Catholicism in college after she started going to Mass with her now husband.

Bice served six years in the Oklahoma Senate and later ran for U.S. Congress. She joined a number of women who have been elected over the past two cycles.

“Not every woman believes that … you should be able to terminate pregnancies up to birth,” Bice said. “So you had a groundswell of women consider running for congressional seats and Senate seats,” she said.

While serving on Capitol Hill, Bice said she turns to prayer and the comfort of the Blessed Mother.

“I stumbled across a group of staffers that actually pray the rosary on fly-in days in the morning,” she explained. “I said, ‘Hey, can a member come?’ And they were delighted that I would even ask.”

One highlight of her congressional career was meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican. The invitation came from Rep. James Langevin, a fellow Catholic and Democrat from Rhode Island.

Pope Francis “looked at my husband and I after blessing us both, and he said: ‘Will you pray for me?’ And that was pretty profound,” Bice said.

Rep. Robert Onder

“Really, my Catholic faith has motivated me my whole life, my whole career, and really motivated in many ways the direction my life has taken,” Rep. Robert Onder, R-Missouri, said.

Onder said his faith was present in his work trying to pass a religious liberty bill in the Missouri Senate and through his fight to protect the conscience rights of physicians who are forced to perform abortions.

As a medical doctor, Onder detailed the present problem in some states and hospitals, which “want to force physicians to participate in abortions, participate in vitro fertilization or artificial contraception, and, of course, more recently, participate in euthanasia.”

Onder said his political service has been motivated by love of God, family, and country. He said he stays rooted in faith by attending daily Mass. He said he also enjoys talking with other lawmakers about their love for Christ.

“Speaker [Mike] Johnson is absolutely a brother in the Christian faith and a very, very strong believer,” Onder said. “It does give me a lot hope and a lot of encouragement to serve with other people who really take their faith seriously.”

Rep. Riley Moore

Rep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia, said his Catholic faith is “is the most important thing” in his life.

“It forms me — every decision I make, everything that I do here on the Hill, it is central to my life. Iʼm always praying to be able to deepen my faith, be a strong family man, and then also my service.”

“So itʼs my faith, my family, my service to my state, my country. But faith comes first.”

“Canʼt always be easy to discern Godʼs will, particularly in a place that is more about individual will and not Godʼs will,” Moore said. “Iʼm trying to re-center myself towards that. Thatʼs that gravitational pull for me that Iʼm always trying to get back to.”

Moore started as a Hill staffer on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, working under the late Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Illinois. One of his priorities is drawing attention to the persecution of Christians around the world, especially in Nigeria.

While in Nigeria, “I met a woman who had had all five of her children murdered, murdered by Islamic terrorists,” Moore said. “I met another woman who had her two daughters and husband killed right in front of her, and then they killed her unborn child.”

“As we know and weʼve heard many times, and itʼs so true that there is salvation through suffering. I think that … their suffering offers us salvation as well by doing something here,” he said.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer

Majority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives Tom Emmer discussed how his faith was largely inspired by his family, including his father, who attended daily Mass.

“The example that they set is, I believe, why I am who I am,” said Emmer, R-Minnesota.

Emmer also detailed the trials of his faith, including the loss of his sister Bridget, who died of breast cancer at 38 years old.

Emmer said he was angry at the Lord and had doubts about Godʼs will because of his sisterʼs suffering. A conversation with Bridget during her chemotherapy treatment was a pivotal moment for him and his faith.

“She looked at me and she said, ‘Tom, would I love to live forever? Absolutely. But Iʼm not going to,’” he explained. His sister added: “I have lived a good life. If God comes and calls me today, so be it.”

Emmer said her words brought him away from his own anger with the Lord. Now his message to others is to put God first while living each moment to the fullest.

But are Catholics, and others, aware of these resources?

One Catholic leader considering such questions is Father Sinclair Oubre, a priest of the Diocese of Beaumont, Texas. He is the spiritual moderator of the Catholic Labor Network, a Catholic association that promotes Catholic teaching about work and labor unions. It also supports labor organizing.

“All work, no matter what the work is, is essential,” Oubre likes to say. In his view, if a woman in janitorial work at a major software company does not show up to clean the toilets and empty the trash, all production in the office will nosedive.

Centuries of Catholic teaching about labor can be found compiled in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, published in 2004 by the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace. It dedicates its entire sixth chapter to human work and labor, its place in God’s plan, its role in society, and the rights and duties of workers.

“The Compendium gathers together in one place those rights that are found in Catholic social teaching, whether it’s Rerum Novarum, or Quadragesimo Anno, or Centesimus Annus, and synthesizes them,” Oubre told EWTN News, referring to the respective encyclicals of popes Leo XIII, Pius XI, and John Paul II.

“It’s a beautiful reflection on human work in the world and a very mature and in-depth discussion of the place of work, the place of labor, and the communal nature of it,” Oubre said.

Labor, politics, and spirituality

Oubre said Catholic teaching is a challenge regardless of people’s political views.

“It’s a challenge to the right, but it’s also a challenge to the left,” he said. Catholicism encourages those on the political right not simply to pray novenas and commit themselves to spiritual actions. It is a challenge not to leave other questions about work and labor to the market.

For the political left, Catholic social teaching “means you have to enter into a more intimate relationship with your Church and your relationship with Jesus and not just be as a social justice person by throwing a couple of little quotes around. It requires you to enter into that deeper spiritual relationship.”

Oubre stressed the importance of starting from the view of Catholic spirituality, not only social justice, because if we don’t, our approach “becomes ideological and polemic.” The spiritual approach “brings us closer to Jesus Christ.”

“No matter how dirty, how uncomfortable, how awful the job is, we are participating in God’s ongoing creation. It’s important that we do that job in a way that gives glory to God,” Oubre said.

God and man at work

The Compendium’s reflection on work begins with its biblical aspects: There is a human duty to “cultivate and care for the earth” and other good things created by God, it says. Work existed before the fall of Adam and Eve, and it is not a punishment or curse until the break with God transforms it into “toil and pain.” However, God’s rest on the seventh day of creation is the sign of the “fuller freedom” of the “eternal Sabbath.”

The life of Jesus Christ is a mission of work, from his early life helping St. Joseph in the work of a carpenter to his ministry of preaching and healing, and most of all in his redemptive labors on the cross.

The Compendium presents human labor as a way of supporting oneself and one’s loved ones but also a way to serve those in need. Work is a way to make God’s creation more beautiful, since humankind shares in God’s art and wisdom.

“Human work, directed to charity as its final goal, becomes an occasion for contemplation, it becomes devout prayer, vigilantly rising towards and in anxious hope of the day that will not end,” the Compendium says.

The rights of labor

God’s rest on the seventh day of creation, the Compendium says, means men and women must enjoy “sufficient rest and free time that will allow them to tend to their family, cultural, social, and religious life.”

The Compendium outlines and explains the many rights of workers: the right to rest from work; the right to a working environment that is not harmful to a worker’s health or moral integrity; the right to unemployment protections; the right to a pension and insurance for old age, disability, and work-related accidents; the right to social security for working mothers; and the right to assemble and form associations; the right to just wages and remuneration; and the right to strike.

Labor unions play a “fundamental role” in serving the common good and promoting social order and solidarity, though they must not abuse their role in society or become simply arms of a political party.

“The recognition of workers’ rights has always been a difficult problem to resolve because this recognition takes place within complex historical and institutional processes, and still today it remains incomplete,” the Compendium says. “This makes the practice of authentic solidarity among workers more fitting and necessary than ever.”

A challenge for Catholics and institutions

Catholic teaching has a lengthy paper record. But as in other areas, there is a challenge to practice it.

“What I find over and over again that the Church — our Church — gives us wonderful documents of guidance… and we never go back and read them,” Oubre told EWTN News.

He cited the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ 1996 pastoral letter “Economic Justice for All,” which says the Church should be a model for labor rights and treating workers justly.

However, Oubre said that in his experience Catholic parishes often neglect to provide unemployment insurance to employees if the law allows them to opt out. Catholic institutions often act as “at-will” employers in which management can fire employees for any reason. They may show preferences for nonunion labor over unionized labor when planning and funding construction projects.

“You’re going to undercut the guy who has actually followed the Church’s teachings in regards to work by hiring somebody who may be not offering medical insurance for his employees,” the priest lamented.

For Labor Day, Oubre encouraged parishes, dioceses, and other institutions to make sure to adopt policies that put Catholic labor teaching into practice.

This story was first published on Sept. 4, 2023, and has been updated.

The march comes amid an ongoing debate over abortion law in England, Scotland and Wales, with pro-life campaigners calling for greater restrictions on abortion and opposing legislation establishing buffer zones around abortion clinics and hospitals.

March For Life organizer Ben Thatcher told EWTN News: “Every single human life is made in the image and likeness of God. Abortion ends that life, and when abortion does end that life, we are looking at a great, great tragedy — something that affects not just that person, but that family and the society and culture we live in.”

Under current law, abortions can generally be carried out up to 24 weeks’ gestation, subject to certain legal conditions. Buffer zones around abortion clinics and hospitals, meanwhile, restrict certain activities intended to influence, obstruct or harass people accessing abortion services.

“I feel thereʼs an absolute travesty that a human life thatʼs made in the image of God can be ended and can be dressed up in this slogan of ‘abortion is healthcare’,” Thatcher said.

The march was attended by 15 Catholic bishops, who also celebrated Mass at Westminster Cathedral in the morning before joining the main group.

Southwark Auxiliary Bishop Paul Hendricks told EWTN News: “I support life in all its stages. We have to stand up for our values. We have our principles and we follow Jesus.”

Southwark Archbishop John Wilson told EWTN News: “Iʼm here because I believe in the beauty and the dignity of human life. … Weʼre united together in a beautiful, peaceful, joyful spirit, to say that human life matters, that every life matters, from conception to natural death.”

“And in a challenging culture, when so many people, in a sense, see life as something more disposable, you just want to stand up and be a voice for the voiceless,” he said.

Attendees sang Christian hymns including “He’s got the whole world in his hands” and the Salve Regina while marching through the sunny streets of London, carrying banners reading: “Abortion hurts the family,” “Abortion Bans Save Lives” and “I’ve joined the fightback.”

“Iʼve come here today to support life from conception to natural death, within a culture where that seems not to be valued now… I think itʼs important to stand up and say that the human dignity of every person is that theyʼre made in the image of God, no matter how small,” Military Bishop Paul Mason told EWTN News.

Father Paul Grogan told EWTN News that abortion is “the most fundamental human rights issue of our time.”

“And I think itʼs an important part of living out our Catholic faith that we should witness to our belief in the beauty of human life, from the moment of conception to the moments of its natural ending,” he said.

Hundreds also attended a pro-choice counter-protest, chanting slogans including “abortion is a human right,” “not the church, not the state, we decide our own fate,” “Christian fascists go away,” and “keep your rosaries off our ovaries.”

Tilly Middlehurst, a pro-choice activist and a Cambridge student who became widely known online after a confrontation with the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, told EWTN News that she had “come to safeguard our rights as women.”

“I want to bring as many people here as possible to demonstrate that [pro-life activists] are a minority, and they donʼt belong here,” she said, referring to the thousands of activists marching in the streets.

Before the march, pro-life activist Ruth Price was met with anger from counter-protesters outside the Emmanuel Centre after trying to hand out pro-life leaflets to the pro-choice advocates.

Price told EWTN News: “I wanted to speak to people who are murdering young children. … I certainly meant no harm to them. I work with adults with very profound learning difficulties and they have lives that are worthwhile. They are precious in the sight of God, and I want people to know that we respect the life of the mother.”

Last year the London March For Life was also attended by approximately 10,000 people, according to organizers who confirmed the same numbers for this year.

This article was updated on Sept. 7, 2026, to reflect an updated estimate of participants at this year’s march.

The Court of Justice of the European Union is currently hearing a case brought by the Brussels Court of Appeal regarding whether the Catholic Church is violating Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation by refusing to erase names from baptismal records when requested.

In a Sept. 2 position paper opposing the deletion policy, the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union disputed claims that a baptismal register functions as a “list of members” of the Catholic Church. A register, the bishops said, serves instead as a “record of historical events.”

“The purpose of a baptismal register is not to bear witness to the faith of individual persons, to the fact that someone is affiliated to the Church or to his/her involvement in Church life,” the bishops said.

Rather, such registers function as a “fundamental evidentiary instrument” for “numerous matters relating to the internal life of the Church,” including whether or not a person has married, made a profession in a religious institute or been confirmed.

It would be “impossible” to verify vital records if they are removed from the register, the bishops said.

Requiring the baptismal deletions, the prelates argued, would mandate that the Church “adapt to [a person’s] feelings or opinions” in how the Church itself views baptismal records. This would require a shift in “theological reflection,” they said, which is “protected by Church autonomy.”

The erasures could further “mislead” both Catholics and non-believers into being convinced that the sacrament of baptism is “repeatable and optional.”

Such a policy would “constitute an infringement on the substance of the sacrament and not merely of the manner in which it is administered or carried out,” the paper said, and it would “seriously impede the proper functioning of the Church.”

Alessandro Calcagno, a lawyer and assistant general secretary for the European bishops, said last year that the proceedings were “not an initiative against the Church by the European Union” but rather “a response to clarifications requested at the national level.”

The issue arose in 2023 after an individual in the Diocese of Ghent in Belgium asked for all of their data to be completely removed from the local Church register. The Ghent Diocese opposed that request.

The European court’s ruling is expected by the end of 2026 or sometime in 2027.

Gary Hermesch was declared incompetent to stand trial in Nemaha County Court on Sept. 3. Hermesch had been charged with first-degree murder in the April 3, 2025 shooting death of Father Arul Carasala in the small city of Seneca.

A spokesman with the state attorney general’s office confirmed the court ruling to EWTN News. The spokesman added that the court “ordered involuntary commitment proceedings [to] be initiated.”

The suspect was arrested the day after the shooting. He reportedly turned himself in to authorities and confessed to the crime.

TKansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann said in a Facebook post after the shooting that Carasala “was a devoted and zealous pastor” who “faithfully served our archdiocese for over 20 years.”

“His love for Christ and his Church was evident in how he ministered to his people with great generosity and care,” the archbishop said.

Carasala’s obituary described him as a “beloved priest” who was “grounded, compassionate, and deeply community-oriented.” He was born in Kilacheri, Tamil Nadu, India, and attended seminary in Cuddapah, Vizag and Eluru; he was ordained to the priesthood on March 4, 1994.

He came to the Kansas City Archdiocese in 2004, becoming “a cornerstone of the local Catholic community.” He eventually became a U.S. citizen in 2011.

He is survived by a sister and brother-in-law as well as a niece and nephew.

The new podcast is designed for families with children ranging in age from 7 to 12. Using both video and audio, families will be guided through the story of salvation in 365 daily episodes using readings from Ascension’s upcoming “The Great Adventure Catholic Bible for Beginners."

The new podcast will follow a similar format as the original “The Bible in a Year” podcast. Each episode will include a Scripture reading, age-appropriate reflections from Johnson, time for prayer, and answers to a variety of Bible questions from children.

Johnson, a priest from the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told EWTN News that the inspiration for the podcast came from those involved the first time around who realized that many of the original listeners of the podcast were now having kids and becoming parents.

Johnson has been working with Ascension for over 12 years. A year ago his bishop asked him to found the Blessed Stanley Rother House of Formation in the Baton Rouge Diocese. Johnson stepped away from his work with Ascension in order to focus on the seminary, his parish, and his parish school. He said when he was approached to take part in the new podcast, he “took it to Jesus.”

While discerning whether or not to take part in the project, Johnson thought of all the children he works with personally at his school and in the community as well as their parents and the many gifts the podcast could bring them.

“We live in the inner city here in Baton Rouge. We serve a very impoverished low-income neighborhood. And so we have a lot of stuff we do for the teens in my neighborhood, but I was like, what if I could put this podcast, ‘Bible in a Year,’ in the hands of their parents to do it with them at home and this could be the reason why the parents would start coming to the sacraments,” Johnson explained.

He added: “Every time we visit our neighbors who need help with their groceries, we feed them and we give them groceries and we help with their bills, I could always leave this podcast and that way as a family, many of them who arenʼt even Catholic or Christian yet … they could also be exposed to the word of God. So all these really beautiful things I thought could be a gift.”

After praying and discerning, and receiving the approval of his bishop, Johnson took the plunge. He said he immediately felt an immense amount of peace after saying “yes” and that recording the podcast has been “the most intimate thing for me and Jesus.”

He shared that he reads Scripture all day in order to make the commentaries for each episode. After he records an episode, it takes about 15 minutes to upload the episode, so he goes to Eucharistic adoration in the chapel he has below his recording studio.

“After 15 minutes of adoration, I come upstairs, record another episode, come back downstairs, adore Jesus, come back upstairs,” he said. “So itʼs like a rhythm, almost like a monk. I get to proclaim the word of God and then pray in adoration, proclaim the word of God and pray in adoration. So it has honestly been one of the greatest gifts in this season of my priesthood.”

Johnson explained that while the family edition of the podcast is very similar to the original, one of the main differences is the use of video. If families choose to watch each episode on YouTube, then children will be able to see cartoon images of the given story they’re reading from the Bible that day. However, families can also choose to simply listen to the audio version.

He also pointed out that while there are many opportunities for parents and children to have encounters with God through conferences or retreats separately, there are few opportunities for children and their parents to have these experiences together.

“We want to bring families together. We want families to have conversations about the word of God,” Johnson said. “Families watch movies together, they watch TV shows together, they read books together — we want them to read the greatest book together.”

Johnson emphasized the importance of instilling a love for Scripture in children because “the Bible is the voice of God and God wants to speak to kids … God wants his voice to be heard by all of us, including kids.”

“Imagine if they learn the language of the Lord, which is Scripture, then as they go to high school and college and theyʼre tempted with the different temptations, the enemy that vies for their attention all day along with his many lies and accusations, theyʼre going to know thatʼs not the voice of God,” he added.

As for his main hope for the podcast, Johnson said: “I hope that families fall in love with God.”

“Jesus is love. It’s what we were created for. So my deepest desire is that families together fall in love with the word of God and desire and begin to learn, to hunger, and yearn for Godʼs word more than they yearn and hunger for social media or for their cellphones or for these passing pleasures.”

The “The Bible in a Year: Family Edition” will be available on the Ascension YouTube channel and on all major podcast platforms.

It comes about two months before the midterm elections, which will decide control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. It does not instruct people how to vote, but does note principles of Catholic teaching that should be considered when making that decision.

Faithful citizenship, the guide explains, embraces “the fullness of the Church’s teachings and is a way of living the Gospel in attending to specific duties in the public square, which sit alongside a wide array of other duties.” It emphasizes that faith must come before politics.

The guide, titled “Outlines for Clergy Formation on Faithful Citizenship,” offers sample outlines for clergy formation sessions, which includes the options of a a 3-5 hour session and a concise 1-hour session.

It was developed following internal dialogue among bishops after some had requested a guide on the subject. It focuses on Catholic Social Teaching, how it applies to modern politics in the U.S. and how to help priests communicate those teachings to their congregations.

“We are supposed to be agents of transformation of society according to the principles of the Gospel and the profound dignity and the life of every human person,” Archbishop Alexander Sample of the Archdiocese of Portland said in a video message that the USCCB provided to dioceses to accompany the guide.

“The church and the laity,” he said, “we need to have a seat at the table to help form a society where every individualʼs dignity is recognized and everybodyʼs right to life is recognized.”

The document includes five guiding principles of Catholic Social Teaching, which derive from Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.

First, it points to the common good, noting the obligation for every person “to act in a manner that serves the whole of society” and be “a neighbor to all.” It cites the Second Vatican Council’s definition of the term: “the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment.”

Second, it points to the Universal Destination of Goods. It notes that God “created the world and entrusted it to the care of humanity.” It pointed to Pope Leo XIII’s teachings in Rerum Novarum, which defends the right to private property, but not one that is absolute. The right is “subordinate to the duty to ensure that all can live in dignity,” it explains.

It points to subsidiarity, which is the principle that “issues should be addressed at as local a level as possible.” It notes “natural justice forbids a government from intruding on the dignity of the family.”

The fourth principle is solidarity, which it explains “puts into practice our Lord’s vast definition of neighbor given in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.”

Fifth, the guide states, is social justice. It states the term is often “incorrectly perceived as ‘woke,’” but stems from the cardinal virtues. It cites Pope Leo XIV, who explained it as “looking beyond one-on-one relationships … to the structural elements that lead to injustice in society.”

Bishop Daniel Flores of the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, said in the video message that Catholics are “called to be faithful, faithful citizens, faithful people in the building up of a society and a community that is somehow reflective of the very things that God Himself has shown us in Christ.”

“And the rest is in Godʼs hands,” he said. “I think as Catholics, our first role in political life and in social life is to give an authentic witness that we that we carry within ourselves, the person of Christ and all that that implies.”

The guide refers to faithful citizenship as “a way of life, not merely something exercised when marking a ballot.”

“Although it addresses specific moral issues — abortion, racial equality, economic inequities, criminal justice, euthanasia, family life, immigration, participation in the political process, war and peace, and many more — faithful citizenship fundamentally is a way of seeing the world in the light of the Gospel and allowing Gospel truth to point the way to prudential judgements and concrete decisions,” it explains.

The storefront launched on Sept. 4, putting “Catholic vendors front and center,” Cana founders told EWTN News.

Cana is a faith-focused wedding-planning platform designed for Catholic and Christian couples to build their websites. The Cana site helps engaged couples manage registries, guest lists, RSVPs, and it connects users with a diverse range of vendors.

It is intended to help couples plan a beautiful, reverent, and personalized wedding, the founders said. It is free of charge to the thousands of couples who use it.

Bringing Christ and ‘intentionality’ to wedding registries

“Up until this point, Cana essentially was just an affiliate partner for pretty much any online retailer. The most popular provider was Amazon, but also Target, Crate & Barrel, and Williams-Sonoma,” James Reichert, co-founder of Cana, told EWTN News.

“Then couples could take an individual link from a Catholic retailer and add that item to their registry. But we were essentially an affiliate partner for the big retailers,” he said.

Cana didnʼt want to be “a Catholic version” of the secular wedding websites, but rather “we wanted to be something truly, radically different,” Reichert said. “So we built our own registry storefront.”

The storefront puts “our Catholic vendors front and center,” Gabe Gessler, co-founder of Cana, added.

“We’ve partnered with big brands. Couples can add ultra high quality kitchenware and bedding items and they can create a full scale wedding registry through the service,” Reichert said.

Reichert said they also partnered with “incredible Catholic retailers: West Coast Catholic, The Little Catholic, The Catholic Company…,House of Joppa, and Darling & Divine.”

“For the first time, Catholic and Christian couples donʼt just have to register for their home goods, all the cookware, dinnerware, bedding things, that they would typically do on a regular wedding registry,” he said.

Now, “they can also register for sacred arts, sacred jewelry, beautiful wall mounts, and icons from all of these incredible brands that have been trusted for decades,” Reichert said.

Cana is hoping to be a “central point for all those different brands on one beautiful wedding registry experience,” he said.

“So many of our brides, they desire intentionality,” Gessler said. “They desire an intentional experience that points them towards the person that matters the most, which is Jesus Christ.”

To give couples a better experience, Cana is “placing forward, front and center, really high quality, what we truly believe are world-class companies, that are able to meet this intersection of commerce and the faith all in one,” Gessler said.

“We believe itʼs going to bless our partners more,” he said.

“Really what we want to do is help create this ecosystem where a Catholic bride doesnʼt need to go scour the internet for all these different partners, or these different registries. But actually she can just have it all in one place,” Gessler said.

“Then also she can come and support these incredible Catholic businesses,” Gessler said.

Cana

Launched in September 2025, “Cana really exists to help couples focus on Christ from their engagement to eternity,” Reichert said. “Our biggest desire is to just help create holy couples and holy marriages.”

“Weʼve now been around for a year,” Gessler said. “Weʼve had more than 8,000 brides join Cana.”

“Itʼs not just a registry experience. Itʼs a digital wedding planning experience that is totally holistic and centered around Christ and the sacrament of marriage rather than just …the excitement of the day,” Gessler said.

“When you get married to your spouse … itʼs an opportunity to enter into this new stage of your life and to place Christ at the center of it,” he said.

“We are praying for every single couple who uses us every day,” Reichert said. “To any couple who has the courage to use us to plan their wedding, we genuinely are so grateful for every single one.”

While the government doesn’t plan to change abortion law from 2026-2027, it intends to follow through with recommendations made by a pro-abortion advisory group and to fund late-stage abortion.

“Every unborn child is a unique human life deserving of protection, and every mother should be supported in ways that uphold her dignity and the dignity of her child,” Keenan said in a statement.

“I therefore make a direct appeal to all elected representatives who recognize the inherent dignity of every human life, to reject any further liberalization of abortion provisions in Scotland and to oppose measures that would remove essential safeguards or further weaken protection for unborn children.”

The advisory group “excluded prolife voices and … adopted a principle of ‘non-regression’ on abortion provision,” the bishop said, arguing that the group “lacks both legitimacy and credibility.”

“It has made radical recommendations to the Scottish Government which, if implemented, would effectively permit abortion up to birth for any reason and remove the current requirement for two doctors to approve abortions up to 24 weeks.”

“It is astonishing that the report also recommends that future legislation should make no reference to sex-selective abortion, paving the way for unborn babies to be aborted simply because they are deemed to be the wrong sex,” he said.

“The establishment of later-stage abortion provision in Scotland, alongside proposals to weaken existing legal safeguards, raises grave moral and social questions,” he said.

Canada doctors’ group voices support for infant euthanasia

The Quebec College of Physicians recently voiced support for euthanasia of newborn babies in some circumstances.

“The CMQ reiterates that medical assistance in dying may be an appropriate treatment for babies suffering from extreme pain that cannot be relieved and who have severe malformations or serious polysymptomatic syndromes that destroy any prospect of survival,” the group said in a statement to the Daily Mail.

“The CMQ believes that parents should have the opportunity to obtain this care for their infant under these well-defined circumstances,” the group continued.

Kentucky brings lawsuit against abortion nonprofit

The state of Kentucky has filed a civil lawsuit against an “activist organization” over its advertisements for abortion pills.

Mayday Health, a pro-abortion nonprofit, recently advertised abortion-inducing drugs via a banner flown by plane over the Kentucky State Fair.

Attorney General Russell Coleman in a post on X said: “It appears abortion activists are flying over Louisville advertising illegal drugs. They are breaking the law.”

“Since January, our Office has been investigating mail order abortion pills,” Coleman said. “We will not tolerate this illegal danger.”

Coleman’s office announced a civil suit against Mayday Health on Sept. 3, arguing that the “out of state activists” were breaking Kentucky law.

The Sept. 17 talk, titled “Catholic Family’s Guide to AI Safety,” will be given by Megan Garcia, a Catholic mother whose son took his own life while using an AI chatbot. Garcia’s talk will center on the “growing dangers of AI, chatbot risks, and protecting children at home.”

“After the heartbreaking loss of her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III, following an intense relationship with an AI companion chatbot, Garcia transformed her grief into a mission to protect other children and families,” the diocese said in a Sept. 2 press release.

Garcia is an attorney and child safety advocate and serves as chair of the Blessed Mother Mary Foundation. She met with Pope Leo XIV in November 2025 during an audience with participants in a conference on child dignity and AI ethics.

DePaul University partners with Vatican Laudato si’ Center for Higher Education

DePaul University has announced it will serve as the Chicago-based partner for the Vatican’s Laudato si’ Center for Higher Education.

The university will also launch the DePaul Institute for a Sustainable Future “to drive the collaboration, expanding a shared commitment to advancing integral ecology and human development,” according to a Sept. 2 press release from the university.

“As a Catholic, Vincentian university, DePaul recognizes that caring for our common home is inseparable from caring for one another,“ Robert L. Manuel, president of DePaul University, said. ”The health of our planet directly affects the well-being of people and communities around the world, particularly those most vulnerable to a changing environment.”

The university will collaborate with more than 60 research and higher education institutions across 35 countries through its participation in the Global Alliance for Laudato si’, according to the release.

National Catholic Bioethics Center launches master’s degree with Catholic University of America

The National Catholic Bioethics Center has announced its partnership with the Catholic University of America for a master’s degree in moral theology and ethics.

Starting with the 2026-2027 academic year, “students who complete the NCBC’s National Catholic Certification Program in Health Care Ethics can transfer six credits toward CUA’s master’s degree in moral theology/ethics,” according to an Aug. 24 press release from the bioethics center.

“This is a great opportunity for our students to further their graduate education with a trusted, faithful institution of higher education following completion of our Certification Program,” Joe Zalot, director of education at the NCBC, said in the release. “CUA is now the sixth academic partner to which our students can transfer credits.” 

Graduates of Catholic colleges more prepared for AI, national study finds

A study carried out on behalf of the Center for Catholic Studies at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, has found that graduates of Catholic colleges report higher levels of preparedness in dealing with AI than graduates of secular institutions.

The findings came as part of the Center’s third Holistic Impact Report, carried out in partnership with YouGov, according to a Sept. 3 press release from the university.

About 44% of Catholic college graduates said they use AI at least daily, compared with 36% of secular college graduates, while 33% said their college moderately or better prepared them to use AI, compared with 23% of secular graduates, according to the study.

Catholic college graduates were also slightly more likely to use AI at all and more likely to view it as beneficial to society, with 36% expecting significant or transformative benefits compared with 28% of secular graduates.

“After three studies, we are seeing a remarkably consistent picture of what Catholic higher education contributes to graduates’ lives,” Jason King, Beirne chair and director of the Center for Catholic Studies at St. Mary’s University, said in the release.

“The findings on AI are particularly interesting because the greater confidence graduates of Catholic colleges express in engaging this new technology is accompanied by a stronger sense of meaning and purpose in their lives and work.”

The settlement was announced on Sept. 3 by the law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates. The law firm, which represents abuse victims around the country, said the settlement will apply to more than 145 survivors.

The Winona-Rochester Diocese filed for bankruptcy in November 2018 and settled with abuse victims there in 2021 for $28 million. The law firm said that settlement included contributions from two diocesan insurers — LMI and Interstate — but did not include a payout from the diocese’s largest insurance company, U.S. Fire.

A lawsuit against the insurer had been working through the courts, the Anderson law firm said, with the trial set to begin on Sept. 28 before the insurance company announced the settlement.

The Winona-Rochester Diocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Attorney Jeff Anderson, meanwhile, said in his law firm’s press release that the settlement “forges a new path forward to combat insurers denials and delays across the country.” He described the settlement as “a triumphant turn toward justice.”

Insurance payouts are one of the ways that dioceses in the U.S. pay for abuse settlements. Other income streams include contributions from parishes, real estate sales, and cash reserves.

Insurers have at times argued that they should not be liable to pay into abuse settlements. Church leaders in the Baltimore and New York archdioceses in recent years have sued their respective insurers to force them to pay into high-dollar payouts.

Those disputes have at times turned bitter. In February the Archdiocese of New York claimed that its longtime insurer Chubb had for several years been “secretly” posing as the “Church Accountability Project,” allegedly encouraging abuse victims to “pursue claims against the [archdiocese].”

In 2025, meanwhile, an advocacy group called the Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation launched an ad campaign urging Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to force insurance companies to pay millions of dollars in abuse claims.

“Work is more than a way to make a living; it is a form of participation in God’s creation,” Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre, chair of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said in the statement.

The archbishop’s’ statement focuses on concerns about labor, such as stagnant wages, not enough opportunities for young people, affordability and other economic issues, and the ongoing growth of artificial intelligence (AI), which has sparked fears about job security.

“This year, we focus on young people and vulnerable communities who face uncertainty in today’s economy,” Fabre said. “Traditional economic indicators tell us the economy is growing, but hiring has slowed, especially for unemployed workers, and unemployment remains high for Black workers.”

The statement indicates that about one-fourth of workers make $35,000 annually or less, and nearly three-fourths of low-wage workers lack stable and secure jobs. It also cites data from a 2025 poll that showed that 70% of Americans  believed it was unaffordable to have children, 13 points higher than the previous year.

On AI, Fabre said, “there is widespread concern [it] will lead to higher unemployment and to fewer jobs that can support a family.” He said young people are “the most impacted so far and also experience the most anxiety” about AI.

“We must listen to the experiences of workers, families, young people, and communities of color as they struggle to find stability,” he said.

The archbishop referenced Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which addresses AI concerns at length. The Holy Father warns humanity against creating “a new Tower of Babel” and pleads for society to instead “build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.”

The pope “notes that although AI presents new opportunities, it also risks normalizing a vision that is anti-human,” Fabre said.

“AI systems can imitate but never replace human intelligence,” he said. “AI cannot feel, love, discern, or receive God’s grace and wisdom. It is not morally neutral and risks creating ‘new forms of exclusion.’ AI must be carefully developed to ensure it serves the common good and humanity itself.”

Echoing the pontiff, Fabre warns against “de-skilling, surveillance, rigid and repetitive tasks, reduced agency and creativity, unemployment, job insecurity, concentrated power, and increased inequalities.”

“Furthermore, AI relies on low-wage workers, who are often hidden and who endure harsh conditions, caught in an exploitative supply chain,” he said. “Pope Leo calls us to work together to ‘design systems centered on the human person and not solely on performance’ and foster an economy that values the God given dignity of each person. Dignified work is not merely about productivity, but also participation in God’s creation. A just economy is not judged on profit alone, but on inclusive growth and protection for the most vulnerable.”

Although Fabre acknowledged that it “may seem daunting” to align AI development with the interests of workers, “we have been here before.” He referenced the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, authored by Pope Leo XIII amid the Industrial Revolution.

“The Church has brought the sacredness of the human person to the questions of work and labor for these last 135 years,” Fabre said. “We recognize that as we observe the 40th anniversary of Economic Justice for All, the U.S. bishops’ landmark document on the economy, much of the teaching of this document remains relevant for our shared project in the United States.”

The archbishop said everyone — including the Church, the government, labor unions, civil society groups, and corporations — have a shared responsibility “to protect the human person and the dignity of work.”

“As new technology reshapes our economy and our work, let us be ‘builders of communion,’ ensuring that innovation and development is for the benefit of all, not just a few, and that each person can contribute to the Kingdom of God through their work,” Fabre said.

The nun was world famous for having established a network of houses in some of the most destitute regions in the world, including her “home for the dying” in Kalighat, Calcutta.

That hospice center, which is still operating today, cares for those who have nowhere else to go, including many dying individuals, with the religious sisters there working to serve Jesus “hidden under the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor,” as John Paul II put it.

Yet though Mother Teresa was hailed for her lifetime of sacrifice and her relentless commitment to caring for the poor, she has periodically come under fire by some critics who allege that she did not effectively minister to impoverished people, including by allegedly denying painkillers to those suffering greatly while dying in her care.

Those allegations were espoused most famously by Christopher Hitchens, the outspoken British atheist who visited the Kalighat house and later wrote critically about the standard of care provided there — including the claim that the sisters refused to provide anesthetics to suffering patients.

‘On the front line of alleviating pain and suffering’

Jim Towey, an American attorney who first met Mother Teresa in 1985 and who would go on to serve as legal counsel for her and the Missionaries of Charity for years, strongly disputed the claim that the nun was “indifferent to the pain of people.”

Towey, who detailed his years of service to Mother Teresa in his acclaimed 2022 book “To Love and Be Loved,” told EWTN News that she was “constantly on the front line of alleviating pain and suffering” across the world.

Hitchens’ widely-repeated criticism, Towey argued, was based off of accounts of a few ex-Missionaries of Charity as well as a visit Hitchens himself paid to the Kalighat facility in the early 1980s, which he wrote about years later.

Critics of the Kalighat home, Towey said, “have no idea what it was like on the streets [of Calcutta], where people were literally dying outside Mother Teresa’s doors.”

“She would bring them in and clean them and make them comfortable,” he said. “Half of them would die, half would eventually recover and leave.”

He said regional circumstances in eastern India in the early 1980s made strong painkillers almost impossible to get.

“There was no available morphine in Calcutta, even in the hospitals,” Towey said. “You couldn’t get anesthesia. The supply routes in and out of West Bengal, even into the 21st century, were terrible. They denied Western investment and trade was nonexistent.” Regional Soviet politics also constrained the exchange of goods, he said.

“There was no reliable stream of medical supplies,” Towey said. Yet “if [Mother Teresa] had them, she used them.”

The standards of care at the Kalighat facility have greatly improved in the decades since Hitchens visited, Towey pointed out. He said he most recently visited the home in May. “It’s changed dramatically. The quality of care, the medical care they provide, the pain relief they give to people [have all improved].”

Still, he cautioned against applying hospital standards to what is effectively a hospice home. “Mother was not running a hospital,” he said. Yet she was committed to alleviating the suffering of her charges to the greatest extent she could, he said. She herself regularly took medicine to manage instances of chronic back pain and numerous broken bones including a broken shoulder.

“This was a person whose life was immersed in suffering,” Towey said. “But when it became terrible she took pain medicine. She understood redemptive suffering, but she also knew the Church encourages people to manage pain.”

Towey, who did the first reading at Mother Teresa’s canonization Mass at the Vatican in 2016, said Mother Teresa “did what she could” and “used what she had” in order to alleviate the suffering of those in her care. And beyond that she worked to ensure that those suffering or dying in her facilities were loved and cared for.

“She tried to help people make sense of the pain if it wasn’t something she could alleviate,” he said.

And ultimately “she let people know they were loved, that they had God-given dignity, and that their suffering would not diminish that dignity.”

The decision from the high court upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Matthew Bradeen that found it was “psychologically unsafe” for Emily Bickford to take their daughter to Calvary Chapel in the Portland region.

The young girl reportedly suffered from panic attacks and psychological distress after attending the church; she reportedly became fixated on the rapture (an end-times belief held by some Christians) as well.

The Maine high court said in its ruling that at one point the church’s pastor openly prayed about the dispute between Bickford and Bradeen, including referencing both the parents and the child “by name almost 30 times.”

The court dismissed Bickford’s constitutional claims in the dispute. The father “is better suited to determine whether certain religious activities are in the child’s best interest,” it held.

In a press release, the legal group Liberty Counsel, which represented Bickford in the dispute, said it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case. Mat Staver, the group’s chair, said the ruling “rejects the First Amendment right” of Bickford and goes against U.S. court precedent.

“Depriving one parent their right to instill their religious views into their child and granting sole authority to the other parent fails to give proper protection to parental rights and religious freedom under the First Amendment,” Staver argued.

He claimed that the ruling “pose[s] a serious threat to religious freedom” in the U.S.

The law, which was signed by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker in December 2025, allows doctors in the state to prescribe lethal doses of medication to patients in order to help them end their own lives. Among other rules, patients must have a terminal illness in order to qualify for receiving help to kill themselves.

The rule has received strong criticism from Catholic bishops in the state.

On Sept. 3, meanwhile, the religious liberty law firm Becket announced that Cupich and two orders of religious sisters had filed a lawsuit against the state seeking to halt enforcement of the law against the Catholic plaintiffs.

The suit, filed in U.S. district court, argues that the sisters — who belong to the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm and the Little Sisters of the Poor — will be forced to either “abandon their religious beliefs regarding the sanctity of life or face significant fines and penalties” if they refuse to participate in the suicide regime.

The suit notes that by Sept. 12, healthcare providers in Illinois, including the sisters through their care homes, will have to proactively discuss the “option” to commit suicide with those in their care. Caregivers will also “have to allow patients to commit suicide in their facilities,” the suit says.

The suit argues that the First Amendment prohibits the state from requiring the Catholic caregivers to violate their faith by participating in the suicide regime.

In a statement announcing the filing, Cupich said the Catholic Church “oppose[s] efforts to undermine human dignity by pushing our brothers and sisters toward suicide.”

“We pray that the courts will protect our freedom to continue advocating and caring for the sick and dying as our faith demands,” he said.

Mother Mary Rose Heery, O. Carm., prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, said patients in their care “come to us at one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives” and that the sisters have a vocation “to give witness to them, through everything we do, that their lives remain precious and that they will never be abandoned.”

“Illinois cannot ask us to replace that promise with help ending their lives,” she said.

Becket President Mark Rienzi described the suicide law’s provisions as “awful.”

“The state should stop trying to make Catholic nuns help patients kill themselves,” he said, arguing that sick patients “deserve the freedom to seek healing, hope, and accompaniment without the government forcing suicide into the conversation.”

This is not the first lawsuit filed against a state assisted suicide measure, nor the first in Illinois.

In August, Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki joined a Lutheran nursing home and a group of doctors to sue the state over the assisted suicide law, with the coalition arguing that the state’s suicide regime abandons “nearly two millennia of medical practice” while requiring objectors to participate in it.

The state agreed to a temporary block of the law later in the month, though the block only applied to the plaintiffs in that suit.

In July, meanwhile, Rockville Centre Bishop John Barres joined several communities of New York religious sisters in suing the state over its own assisted suicide law. Those plaintiffs also won a temporary block of the state’s suicide law.

Separately, groups of disability advocates have filed lawsuits against the suicide laws in New York and Illinois, as well as in Colorado and Delaware, alleging that those laws discriminate against people with disabilities.

On Sept. 3 the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation and Peoria Bishop Lou Tylka announced the list of speakers for the gala event, which will be held Sept. 25th at the Peoria Civic Center, the day after Sheen himself is beatified in St. Louis.

“We’re thrilled to bring the inaugural Sheen Awards to Peoria as we celebrate the beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen,” said Peoria diocese COO Royce Hood. He said the goal is to make the event an annual production “celebrating Sheen’s legacy and recognizing people who are using their platforms to promote the faith.”

Hailed during and after his life for his use of mass media to promote and explain the Catholic faith, Sheen has long been celebrated for his pioneering work in Catholic radio and television.

Barron, founder of the Word on Fire ministry and host of the popular documentary series “Catholicism,” is widely viewed as a leading successor to Sheen’s legacy; his evangelistic work led the Wall Street Journal to dub him the “bishop of Catholic social media.”

Roumie, meanwhile, has found global fame portraying Jesus Christ in the spectacularly successful series “The Chosen.”

In a press release Bishop Tylka expressed admiration for Roumie’s “deep Catholic faith” which the actor “practices each day and which influences his acting in bringing Jesus to life through the Chosen.”

Roumie told the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation that when he first began learning about Sheen, he immediately recognized how he could relate to the archbishop given Roumie’s own acting work.

“When you watch him, it’s no wonder he had such a gift for being evangelistically present on television, serving the people he was trying to reach,” Roumie said. “It continues to be an inspiration to me as to just how much work there is for me to do to try to aspire to the reach and impact he had on culture.”

Tylka also announced the participation of the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Gabriel Caccia, at the awards ceremony. The nuncio’s presence “shows the importance of the beatification of Fulton Sheen for the Church in the United States and around the world,” the bishop said.

Other special guests include actor, producer and director David Henrie, host of the EWTN series “Seeking Beauty;” Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States Director Monsignor Roger Landry; Hallow CEO Alex Jones and Catholic author and media personality Katie Prejean McGrady.

Launching the same week that Archbishop Sheen will be beatified on Sept. 24,  the Sheen Awards are meant to “recognize individuals whose work in media, evangelization, mission, and liturgy continues his mission of bringing Christ to the world with creativity, conviction, and joy,” the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation emphasized.

The Foundation added that more details and ticket information can be found at sheenawards.com. Tickets are still available, but space is limited.

The event is scheduled to air on EWTN on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 8:00 p.m. ET.

That’s how Joe Schmid announced his conversion to Catholicism on his YouTube channel, “Majesty of Reason,” on Aug. 21.

Conversion is always a cause for celebration, but in Schmid’s case it was likely unexpected among his channel’s 55,000 subscribers.

For years, Schmid has used his YouTube channel to explore a broad variety of philosophical and naturalistic arguments and principles — and Schmid himself has openly identified as an agnostic for most of that time.

Schmid, who was raised Catholic, told EWTN News that he adopted atheism and then eventually agnosticism in high school. He said he was originally led to atheism because of “the problem of evolutionary animal suffering,” a well-known topic of philosophical and theological debate.

Philosophers such as Joshua Rasmussen and Alexander Pruss led him to consider “contingency arguments” in favor of God’s existence, he said, but his own “arduous conversion process” would ultimately last a decade.

Schmid launched his YouTube channel in April 2020. Broadly, “my videos focused primarily on philosophy of religion, and secondarily on other areas of philosophy like metaphysics, metaethics, and epistemology,” Schmid told EWTN News, and “criticizing arguments for God’s existence was one of my central focuses.”

To that end, he created a wide variety of videos, including interviews and debates with scholars, lengthy lectures, and episodes responding to other YouTube content, “primarily theist and Christian and Catholic creators.” 

Those videos have undergone a marked shift in recent weeks. Videos over the last year have included debates about whether Jesus rose from the dead and an extended case for veganism, among numerous other topics.

On Aug. 21, however, Schmid posted a nearly half-hour-long video revealing his conversion to Catholicism, and in the roughly two weeks since then his videos have focused on topics such as “the best-ever cumulative case for God” and “the best objections to Catholicism answered.”

Schmid, who is a a fourth-year doctoral candidate in philosophy at Princeton University, told EWTN News his return to the faith “wasnʼt my own making.”

“Conversion is a gift of Godʼs grace, and Iʼve seen its transformative impact in my life,” he said. “So God is ultimately what led me to Catholicism.”

Yet, he said a “huge confluence of factors” convinced him of the truth of the Catholic faith “on an intellectual level.” Chief among them are the “vindicatory miracles,” or “miracles wrought by God in confirmation of distinctive Catholic doctrines.”

He cited the charisms of Padre Pio, the healing miracles at Lourdes, the apparitions of Our Lady of Fátima, Eucharistic miracles, “and much more besides.”

“I converted after a long process of working through my many objections to Catholicism and appreciating the many powerful arguments in its favor,” he said. In his video he described the process as a “culmination” of “head factors and heart factors.”

“God is good,” he told his viewers.

The high-profile conversion was noted by the Aquinas Institute, the Catholic campus ministry at Princeton, which urged the Catholic community there to “pray for Joe as he continues to grow in his Catholic faith and begins this new chapter of his public work.”

Schmid also appeared recently in a two-hour-long interview with Catholic apologist Trent Horn, who described Schmid as “one of my smartest critics.” Horn praised Schmid’s rigorous approach to philosophical and theological debate even when Schmid himself was an agnostic.

“Iʼve learned a lot from you in your rebuttals, and it has helped in my own path and trying to grow as an apologist and a philosopher,” Horn told Schmid during the interview.

Speaking to his own viewers when announcing his conversion, Schmid said he has significant plans to continue his YouTube channel in service to Catholicism, and “we will see where the Lord takes me.”

“Debates and discussions will be continuing,” he said. He asked for patience from viewers during the transition.

“And I also ask for your prayers,” he added. “Know that I will be praying for you.”

The bishop announced the proposed settlement in an Aug. 25 letter to the diocese. The diocese had earlier announced a $45 million agreement in May.

A diocesan spokeswoman confirmed that the additional roughly $38 million would come from insurance contributions.

In his August letter, LaValley said the diocese was hoping to have the plan approved by the bankruptcy court “in the next few months.” The Ogdensburg Diocese filed for bankruptcy in July 2023, the sixth diocese in New York state to do so.

The bishop urged Catholics to pray for both abuse victims as well as the diocese itself. He described the reparation payments as a “moral obligation” on the part of the diocese.

‘Rapid pre-pack’ bankruptcy

In his letter, LaValley said the parishes in the diocese will undergo a notable bankruptcy proceeding called “rapid pre-pack Chapter 11,” one that will settle current abuse allegations while protecting parishes from future litigation.

“Each of our parishes will file a Chapter 11 case at the very last moment, after we know whether we have sufficient votes to confirm the plan,” the bishop said. Parishes are anticipated to be in bankruptcy for about 48 hours before emerging “quickly,” he said.

“The result is that the diocese and parishes will receive a bankruptcy discharge of all alleged abuse claims as of the date the parishʼs pre-packed bankruptcy is filed,” the bishop said. “Going forward, no abuse claims may be brought against parishes from prior to that date.”

The bishop said the unique strategy emerged after a June 2024 Supreme Court decision on bankruptcy, likely a reference to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that month in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P.

That ruling on a complex provision of U.S. bankruptcy law meant that individual parishes and schools in diocesan abuse proceedings could be sued, greatly expanding the possibility of large numbers of expensive lawsuits against Catholic entities.

LaValley said the diocese had been advised that the “rapid” bankruptcy proceeding “is the only viable and realistic way to obtain comprehensive relief” for all diocesan entities there.

A similar strategy had been used in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, and the Archdiocese of New Orleans, he said.

The diocesan partnership was conceived by Bishop Frank J. Caggiano with the goal of transforming the workplace with the help of His Way At Work, an international apostolate inspiring business owners to consecrate their companies to the Sacred Heart and place God at the center.

His Way At Work, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 2008 by Peter Freissle, an entrepreneur and CEO. His Way At Work reports that it has reached nearly 500,000 employees and their families. It also has aided more than 300 companies, serving in more than 12 countries. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco serves as the episcopal adviser to His Way At Work.

Caggiano said in a statement shared with EWTN News: “Most people spend the greater part of their waking hours at work, and God wants to be more present to them and through them there. The His Way at Work Guild is an invitation to business owners to consecrate their companies to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to lead in a way that honors the dignity of every employee.”

“I would say to any business owner in Fairfield County who has ever wondered whether their faith belongs at work: it does, and you are not alone in asking the question. Come and see what this Guild is about,” Caggiano said.

By joining the association of consecrated companies, the Bridgeport Diocese said it hopes the owners will adopt a Catholic framework and encourage care for employees.

The guild will be entrusted to its patrons — Sts. Louis and Marie-Azélie Martin. The pair were two small business owners in 19th-century France. They were also the parents of five nuns, including the beloved St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and the first married couple to be canonized.

“His Way At Work aligned perfectly with the guild system the bishop established, and naming it after a canonized man and woman, who were successful and faithful business owners, seemed a perfect fit,” Deacon Patrick Toole, chancellor of the diocese, said in a diocesan announcement of the guild.

Caggiano established the Guilds of the Diocese of Bridgeport “to offer a unique way for the faithful to deepen their spiritual lives and grow in community through shared vocations and interests,” according to the diocese.

Each of the guilds serves a mission in the community, from fostering Eucharistic adoration to supporting healthcare. The initiative is expanding its reach with a guild focused on supporting business leaders.

“Our hope is that it creates a community of faith among business owners so they can support each other and grow closer spiritually and professionally,” Toole said.

“By consecrating their businesses to the Sacred Heart, their customers will realize there is something different and special about these businesses — something that sets them apart,” he said.

The announcement of the guild follows the dioceseʼs reconsecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which took place in June. The diocese joined the Catholic Church throughout the U.S. in “a great act of faith and love as our bishops consecrate our nation to the Sacred Heart,” Caggiano wrote in a message.

Next steps for companies hoping to add faith to their work

For interested businesses in the diocese, Caggiano will hold an informational session in conjunction with the His Way At Work team. It will be held on Oct. 22 at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Fairfield.

Business owners will receive a guidebook and pray a nine-day novena to the Sacred Heart. Members will receive certificates of consecration and be encouraged to take part in monthly formation meetings offered by the guild with His Way At Work.

The initiative will be funded by the diocese, which will provide members free access to formation materials.

The Diocese of Bridgeport joins numerous other diocesan communities who work alongside His Way At Work to bring God’s presence to the workplace.

The organization works in partnership with the Archdiocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, and the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina. It also operates internationally, aiding the Archdiocese of Mexico in Mexico City and the Archdiocese of Monterrey in northern Mexico.

This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 2, 2026, with comments from Bishop Frank J. Caggiano and a photograph of Sts. Louis and Marie-Azélie Martin.

“Religious‑freedom conditions in India continue to deteriorate as violence and incitement are increasingly used to target minority faith communities,” USCIRF Chair Asif Mahmood said in an Aug. 26 statement, issued after Mohan Bhagwat — chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a prominent Hindu nationalist volunteer organization accused of targeting Christians — visited the United States Aug. 25–29.

“We urge the U.S. government to consider targeted sanctions against RSS members and Indian officials complicit in religious freedom violations, including revoking the visa issued to Mohan Bhagwat and making him ineligible for future entry into the United States,” Mahmood said.

Bhagwat’s tour also extended to Canada and the United Kingdom, part of the RSS’ effort to strengthen ties with overseas Hindu communities during its centenary year.

“The U.S. government has an opportunity to hold India accountable and signal that the United States stands for religious freedom for the people of India,” Vice Chair CeCe Heil said in the release. “Without this accountability, religious freedom will only deteriorate further, as vigilante mobs continue to attack religious minorities and their houses of worship under the guise of enforcing anti-conversion laws and other harmful policies.”

In a May USCIRF briefing on Capitol Hill, witnesses called for U.S. intervention to end ongoing persecution of religious minorities in India amid warnings of escalating attacks against Christians in India, including mob violence and property destruction. The Catholic population in India is about 23 million, about 1.6% of the country’s population, according to the Vatican.

USCIRF recommended in its 2026 annual report that the U.S. State Department designate India as a country of particular concern.

Congressional support

Rep. Riley Moore, R‑West Virginia, told “EWTN News Nightly” on Sept. 2 he is concerned about “growing intolerance as it relates to Christianity in India” as India’s government considers changes to its Foreign Contributions Regulations Act that could restrict Catholic charities from receiving foreign aid.

“The Indian government does and should prevent foreign money from interfering in the day‑to‑day activities or the governance of their country,” Moore said, but he added that Catholic hospitals aren’t doing that and instead provide essential care to the communities they serve.

Moore said questions remain about how India treats its Christian population, noting the Catholic Church’s humanitarian work, including that of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity.

“Her feast day is coming up here on the fifth,” he said. “Itʼs just a reminder of why itʼs so important for us to raise our voice in concern when we see what I view as certainly an issue as it relates to Christian intolerance in certain parts of either the government or the country of India.”

This story was updated at 2:55 p.m. ET on Sept. 2, 2026, to include comments by Rep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia.

Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ordered that the lawsuit would be delayed until either Dec. 1 or the completion of the FDA’s safety review of mifepristone, whichever comes first.

In the lawsuit, Texas and Florida asked the court to revoke the FDA’s approval of the abortion-inducing pill, saying the agency didn’t adequately evaluate its safety when it approved the drug in 2000. The lawsuit also challenged mail-order distribution of the pill.

The FDA first announced it would review mifepristone in September 2025.

Pro-life group Live Action called on the FDA to protect women and unborn children from the abortion pill, citing studies that show dangerous side effects of the drug.

“The Food and Drug Administration and Health and Human Services officials must do their job to protect women and children from the dangerous abortion pill, which now accounts for 65% of all abortions in the United States and has led to the deaths of 7.5 million preborn children since its release,” Noah Brandt, spokesman for Live Action, told EWTN News.

“Both agencies have seen real-world data that show the harmful effects of the abortion pill,” Brandt said. “Within 45 days of a chemical abortion, 1 in 10 women experience serious adverse events from mifepristone, the first drug in the abortion pill regimen, such as sepsis, infection, or hemorrhaging.”

“This shift in timing for the lawsuit and their ‘promised’ review indicates that they are prioritizing politics over the safety of American women and children,” Brandt said.

“While they continue to brush off these critical issues, the abortion pill is recklessly being mailed across state lines via telehealth distribution, enabling coercion and abuse,” Brandt said. “It’s time deadly mail-order abortion ended once and for all and this lethal pill be removed from the market completely.”

Bishop Michael Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth announced on Aug. 28 the opening of the church.

Ayariga was one of 21 Christian migrant workers in Libya kidnapped and then beheaded by the terrorist group ISIS on a beach near Sirte, Libya, on Feb. 15, 2015.

Originally from Ghana, Ayariga was the only Black African among the 21 men. The others were all Coptic Orthodox Christians from Egypt. When questioned about his faith by his kidnappers, he reportedly replied: “Their God is my God.”

The Coptic Orthodox Church canonized all 21 men as saints and martyrs on Feb. 21, 2015, under Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II.

In an ecumenical sign of communion between the two churches, Pope Francis announced that the 21 martyrs would be inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on May 11, 2023, during a meeting at the Vatican with Pope Tawadros II. Francis described the men as baptized “not only in water and the Spirit, but also in blood.”

As the authority to create saints lies with the Apostolic See, the saints did not have to go through the usual multistep canonization process involving the opening of a cause, beatification, and confirmed miracles.

The martyrs’ feast day in both churches is Feb. 15.

Another first

The parish will also be the first Ghanaian Catholic parish in the U.S. and will serve the Ghanaian community in north Texas, which has met since 2007 at St. Joseph Church in Arlington.

“Saint Matthew Ayariga Catholic Church will provide a place for Ghanaian Catholics to come together in Christ as the Church to worship God, to assist their maintaining bonds with the Church in Ghana, and to strengthen their children sacramentally to grow as part of the local church here,” Olson told EWTN News in a statement.

He also said the church would serve as a place that would aid immigrants in their transition “to life as citizens and productive contributors to the common good of Texas and the United States.”

“We’ve had a growing Ghanaian presence in our diocese for a long time,” a spokesperson for the diocese told EWTN News. “Their community long envisioned having a parish to call their own.”

The community has been raising funds to establish its own parish for nearly 20 years, according to the spokesperson. “When they began raising funds, there was no name attached to the nonexistent parish. The name was only settled on recently, although I would guess that after his martyrdom, Matthew Ayariga’s name began to rise to the top of the list of parish names.”

Three Masses to dedicate the new church, a former Methodist church being renovated in south Arlington, are planned for the weekend of Jan. 29–31, 2027. The archbishop of Kumasi, Ghana, Gabriel Anokye, is expected to attend, along with dignitaries and other representatives of the Ghanaian community, bishops and cardinals from Texas and around the U.S., and other local officials.

Speaking to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, the organizationʼs founder and director, Zeira Becerra, said the new project will be presented during the “Vision and Hope Breakfast” on Saturday, Sept. 26.

Becerra said the initiative grew out of a promise she made to herself in New York in 1991, “when I was hired, without realizing it, by an abortion clinic.”

“There I witnessed a reality that changed my life forever: women arriving who felt they had no other way out, and lives just beginning to form being ended by abortion,” she recalled.

‘There has to be a place’

Becerra recalled a moment that she said particularly touched her heart: “I wanted to help a 14-year-old girl so she could continue with her baby’s life, but I discovered I had no safe place to take her. That was when I became certain that there has to be a place.”

That day, she said, “I made a promise to myself, a purpose for my life: I didn’t know how, but I had to create that place.”

“Many years had to pass,” she said, but eventually that promise “became Life in Mercy, a home where an expectant mother could find a welcome, support, and a real, loving, and merciful alternative to choose life.”

In its 10 years of work, Life in Mercy has supported “around 75 mothers and their babies in various ways,” she noted. “Each one represents a unique story and a life that deserved to be welcomed with hope.”

Becerra said Life in Mercy helps each mother “connect with the resources she needs, providing emotional and spiritual support and, above all, reminding her that she is not alone and that a difficult situation does not have to end her childʼs life.”

“In the end, we want more women who find themselves facing a difficult situation to be able to hear something very simple but decisive: ‘There is a place for you and your baby,’” she said.

‘A larger, newer, and better-situated house’

The organization is currently aiming to “acquire a larger, newer, and better-situated house that allows us to welcome more mothers and babies,” a move Becerra said she considers “a very important stage” for the initiative.

“We sold our previous house because we needed to take the next step. It was an old house, and our mission has grown,” she explained.

“And that is precisely one of the main reasons for this breakfast,” she noted: “We don’t simply want to reopen a house; we want to build a broader response to the need we are seeing in Houston.”

‘She arrived sad, scared, and unsure of what would become of her life’

During the breakfast, a woman who “came to us with a 6-year-old child and was in her first trimester of pregnancy” will share her testimony, Becerra said.

“She had been abandoned by her partner; she had no job, vehicle, or family in Houston, and as an immigrant, she was practically alone. In her desperation, she even considered ending her baby’s life as her only way out,” Becerra continued.

“By the grace of God, she first received care at a crisis center for women, where she was able to rediscover the value of her baby’s life and learn that there were people and resources ready to help her. That was when she found the strength to go on, and she subsequently came to our shelter,” she said.

The woman, she recalled, “arrived sad, frightened, and unsure of what would become of her life.”

“Over time, something beautiful happened,” Becerra said, as “she regained her self-confidence, had a beautiful baby girl, and was able to move forward.”

Becerra explained that the mission of Life in Mercy “does not end when the baby is born,” because “we want to walk with the mother so she can begin a new phase in life with her child — with dignity, hope, and the tools to move forward.”

Although Texas generally prohibits abortion with limited medical exceptions, Becerra pointed out that “the fact that abortion is no longer legal in Texas does not mean the problem is over, nor that we can let our guard down. On the contrary, we have an even greater responsibility to support mothers who choose life.”

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.