Catholic News

• Pope Leo issues appeal for migrants, refugees (CWN)
  At the conclusion of his September 23 general audience, Pope Leo XIV issued an appeal for migrants and refugees.
• Cardinal Parolin addresses UN meetings on AI, Declaration on Right to Development (CWN)
  Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, addressed two UN meetings yesterday.
• USCCB files new brief in Supreme Court case involving Colorado Catholic preschools (USCCB)
  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops filed a new brief supporting a Denver Catholic parish and other plaintiffs in a case involving Colorado’s universal preschool program. The Becket Fund explained that Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood excluded Denver archdiocesan schools from the program “by claiming the Archdiocese’s religious exercise—asking all families who enroll to support and uphold the Catholic Church’s teachings—was inconsistent with the preschool funding program’s requirements” regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the state; the Supreme Court agreed to hear the plaintiffs’ appeal. The original 21-page USCCB brief was dated December 2025; the new 27-page USCCB brief was dated July 2026 and posted on the USCCB website yesterday. Neither brief was prepared by the USCCB’s general counsel; instead, both were prepared by attorneys from Lehotsky Keller Kohn.
• Dates announced for 2028 International Eucharistic Congress (The Catholic Weekly (Sydney))
  The 54th International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Sydney, Australia, from September 24 to October 1, 2028. The most recent international Eucharistic congresses took place in Cebu City, Philippines (2016); Budapest, Hungary (2021); and Quito, Ecuador (2024). Sydney also hosted the 29th International Eucharistic Congress in 1928.
• Pope, in audience on Vatican II, reflects on the meaning of human progress (CWN)
  Continuing his series of Wednesday general audiences on the Second Vatican Council and its documents, Pope Leo XIV devoted today’s audience (video) to the theme of the meaning of man’s activity throughout the world
• US State Department condemns attack on Catholic Relief Services convoy in Ethiopia (@USForeignAssist)
  The U.S. State Department’s Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance, Humanitarian Affairs, and Religious Freedom denounced a drone strike on a Catholic Relief Services “convoy carrying lifesaving humanitarian assistance to people in Tigray,” an Ethiopian region. “Humanitarian workers and civilian populations must be protected,” the statement continued. “We call for the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to those who need it most.” The statement did not identify the perpetrator of the attack, which came amid renewed fighting between Ethiopia’s government and Tigray separatists.
• Sri Lankan court sentences 15 men to life in prison for roles in deadly 2019 Easter bombings (AP)
  At the conclusion of a five-year trial, 15 men were convicted, and nine were acquitted, of participating in the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings, perpetrated by the Islamic State. The coordinated attacks on three churches and three hotels left 267 dead. The 15 men who were convicted were each sentenced to at least 200 years in prison. All of the suspects at the trial are “members of Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority,” the Associated Press reported.
• Notre Dame theologian Cavadini named winner of 2026 Ratzinger Prize (Vatican Foundation Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI)
  The Vatican Foundation Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI announced that John Cavadini, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, has won the 2026 Ratzinger Prize. “Professor Cavadini is highly regarded for the rigor of his theological publications, his commitment and zeal in university teaching, his academic expertise, his pastoral passion and his lifelong service to the Church,” said Father Roberto Regoli, the foundation’s president. On December 19, Pope Leo XIV will present Dr. Cavadini with the award, which was first given in 2011 (list of laureates).
• Cardinal Tagle encourages faithful to imitate Archbishop Sheen's virtues as beatification nears (OSV News)
  Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, one of the two pro-prefects of the Dicastery for Evangelization, celebrated Mass in the cathedral of Peoria, Illinois, on September 22, two days before Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification. The Diocese of Peoria was Archbishop Sheen’s native diocese. Cardinal Tagle preached that “this is a grace for all of us here, but also a heavy responsibility. From now on, when people learn that you are from Peoria, they will say, ‘Oh, are you as missionary oriented as Bishop Fulton Sheen? Are you deeply entrenched in the Word of God, like the Blessed Fulton Sheen?’”
• 2 Catholic schools, closed for decades, reopen in Syria (Vatican News)
  Two Franciscan schools in Syria’s Idlib Governorate (map) reopened on September 20, decades after they were closed. The Franciscan friars of the Custody of the Holy Land opened one the schools in 1958, only to see it expropriated in 1972, shortly after Hafez al-Assad became president. With the end of the Syrian Civil War, many teachers have returned to Syria, said Father Khukaz Mesrob, O.F.M. “We always hoped for the best, that the children would eventually return” to the schools, said Father Mesrob. “Today we have 25 active teachers covering everything from English and mathematics to chemistry and biology, and they are all children of the villages and Christians.”
• 2nd session of Borgo Dialogues held in New York (Laudato Si' Center for Higher Education)
  The Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education announced that the second session of the Borgo Dialogues is taking place in New York. In June, Pope Leo XIV addressed participants in the first session, which took place at Borgo Laudato Si’ in Castel Gandolfo. “Rooted in Catholic social teachings of leadership in service to the common good, the invitation-only Borgo Dialogues convenes global leaders from business, finance, academia, faith, healthcare, sports, civil society and international institutions,” the Center stated. “At the heart of the Dialogues is a guiding question: What are we building, for whom, and who will inherit it?” Pope Francis founded the Laudato Si’ Center for Higher Education in 2023. The Center works for the “integral formation of the person in the context of the sustainable economy and in compliance with the principles” of Laudato Si’, the 2015 encyclical letter.
• Cardinal Zuppi: Synodality helps make the Gospel credible (Chiesa Cattolica Italiana)
  In a wide-ranging address to the permanent council of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi of Bologna said that synodality—“listening to each other, sharing responsibilities, seeking together how to serve our Churches”—is “part of the proclamation” of the Gospel, and “not its organizational premise.” “The communion we live makes the word we address to others credible, generates and regenerates our decisive unity,” said Cardinal Zuppi, the episcopal conference president. “Unity does not serve to protect us from the world: it is a gift to reach it with the Gospel. “ The six subsequent sections of Cardinal Zuppi’s Italian-language address, delivered on September 21, were entitled “An announcement that is never disembodied,” “The testimony of Francis of Assisi,” “The relevance of the ‘spirit of Assisi,’” “The Rome Conference, Fifty Years Later,” “The school, the construction site of our common future,” and “End of life, no one is left alone!”
• Islamic prayer chanted during Belgian Catholic university's opening Mass (AdVaticanum)
  A prayer from the Qu’ran was chanted in Arabic during the opening Mass of the academic year at KU Leuven (Catholic University Leuven) in Belgium. Archbishop Luc Terlinden, the Primate of Belgium, was present in the front row at the Mass, AdVaticanum reported. Professor Martijn Steegen, a layman, preached the homily, despite the Vatican’s recent reaffirmation that only clergy are permitted to preach the homily at Mass.
• Virginia bishop urges faithful to reject ballot initiatives on abortion, same-sex marriage (Diocese of Arlington)
  Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, called on the faithful to vote against two ballot initiatives. Ballot Question 1 is the “Virginia Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment”; Ballot Question 2 is the “Virginia Remove Constitutional Same-Sex Marriage Ban Amendment.” Bishop Burbidge wrote that Ballot Question 1 proposes an extreme and vague change to the Virginia Constitution that would create a legal right to unregulated abortions, performed by unlicensed abortion practitioners at any time during pregnancy. This threatens the health and safety of mothers and would allow for abortions targeting healthy babies all the way up to birth. The amendment extends this so-called right even to minors. It would remove the role of parents concerning life-altering and irreversible decisions for their minor daughters. Ballot Question 2 “would remove from our state constitution the truth, as Jesus taught, that marriage is between one man and one woman,” he continued. “It would also enshrine gender ideology by falsely separating the reality of one’s sex and gender, obscuring the truth that we are created in the image and likeness of God.”
• New Vatican Note proclaims success of dialogue [News Analysis] (CWN)
  A Journey of Hope, the new Vatican note on the growth of interfaith dialogue since Vatican II, acknowledges that “it is important to remember that ‘dialogue’ is not a magic formula.” But if it is not treated as magical, the word “dialogue”—which appears 129 times in the 60-paragraph document—is unquestionably the leitmotif of the Vatican message.
• Texas bishop denounces shooting of man by ICE officer (Diocese of Austin)
  The bishop of Austin, Texas, denounced the shooting of a Venezuelan man by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. The man’s attorney said that he is present in the United States legally, with a valid work permit. “I am deeply saddened and disturbed by the shooting of a man involving an ICE officer in the city of Austin,” said Bishop Daniel Garcia. “We find ourselves in a time in this country and city, when people are living in terror and fear because of the increased activity of ICE agents on our streets. Many people are often being detained only due to the color of their skin or the language they speak.”
• Vatican diplomat decries hate speech, says it 'cannot claim the protection of liberty' (Holy See Mission)
  A Vatican diplomat said that the inviolable dignity of every human person, created in the image of God, leads to the “moral imperative to reject every form of intolerance, discrimination, and hate speech that wounds the human family and undermines the conditions for peaceful coexistence.” “Hate speech—whether directed against individuals or communities on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, nationality, or any other characteristic—contradicts the commandment to love one’s neighbor, poisons public discourse, inflames division, and too often prepares the ground for violence and persecution,” Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said yesterday at a UN conference (part 1, part 2). “Freedom of expression is a fundamental right that must be protected. Yet this freedom carries corresponding responsibilities,” he added. “Speech that deliberately incites hatred or violence cannot claim the protection of liberty; rather, it erodes the very conditions in which genuine freedom can flourish.” Archbishop El-Kassis’s statement yesterday was his first since his appointment as Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. In 2018, one of his predecessors, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, also decried hate speech but warned that some governments were using regulations against “hate speech” and “hate crimes” as pretexts for “discriminatory or repressive measures against those, for example, who defend the dignity of every human life or uphold the dignity of marriage and the family.” Likewise, in 2023, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, told the UN General Assembly that “the term ‘hate crime’ or ‘hate speech’ is now being used subjectively and manipulated to keep people from expressing their religious beliefs, equating the practice of religion to violence. This purposefully dishonest, politically motivated agenda, especially egregious in the West, must end.”
• Syriac Catholic Church synod begins process of deposing Patriarch (Pillar)
  The senior bishop of the synod of bishops of the Syriac Catholic Church initiated the process of deposing Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Yonan, who has led the Eastern Catholic church since 2009. On August 29, Pope Leo XIV amended the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches to grant Eastern Catholic synods the authority to remove Patriarchs and Major Archbishops when communion between the church’s head and synod has been “seriously and irreparably damaged.” The Pillar reported that “dissatisfaction among Syriac bishops has reportedly centered around Youssif’s refusal to convene governing synodal meetings for the Eastern Catholic Church, despite repeated requests from bishops over the past three years.” Under the procedures outlined in the papal letter, an Eastern Catholic synod may request the resignation of the Patriarch or Major Archbishop. If he refuses to resign, the synod may depose him by a two-thirds vote—but only if the Roman Pontiff consents.
• More...