Holy Trinity Catholic Church

Daniel O'Connell, lithograph attributed to R. Evan Sly (EP OCON-DA (17) II) from the National Library of Ireland. / Credit: National Library of Ireland

Dublin, Ireland, Aug 9, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Daniel O’Connell, known as “The Liberator,” was a pivotal figure in 19th-century Ireland, championing the cause of Catholic emancipation.

Opposed to violence, he advocated for Catholic rights through peaceful means, emphasizing dialogue and legal reform, and organizing mass demonstrations to rally public support and raise awareness about the injustices faced by Catholics.

“Daniel O’Connell’s achievement in forcing the British government to concede Catholic emancipation in 1829 was immense,” Bishop Niall Coll of Ossory told CNA. “The penal laws, a series of oppressive statutes enacted in the 17th and early 18th centuries that targeted the Catholic majority in Ireland, restricting their rights to own land, hold public office, and practice their religion were set aside.”

O’Connell’s efforts culminated in the passage of the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which allowed Catholics to sit in Parliament and hold public office and significantly transformed Irish politics.

O’Connell was born in 1775 in Caherciveen in rural Kerry. His parents had managed to maintain their land despite the penal laws, thanks to their remoteness, business sense, and help from Protestant neighbors. O’Connell’s earliest years, until he was 4, were spent with an Irish-speaking family that instilled in him an inherent understanding of Irish peasant life. 

After studying in France at the English Colleges in St. Omer and Douai during the French Revolution, he returned to Ireland, completed his studies, and was called to the bar. In 1802, then a successful barrister, he married a distant cousin, Mary O’Connell, and they had 12 children — seven of whom survived to adulthood. In 1823 he founded the Catholic Association with the express aim of securing emancipation.

O’Connell’s early experiences were critical to his political and social formation, according to Jesuit historian Father Fergus O’Donoghue, who told CNA that O’Connell’s exposure to European influences undoubtedly shaped his character, his opposition to violence, and his deep-seated opposition to tyranny.

“He witnessed the French Revolution, which appalled him and set his heart completely against violence,” O’Donoghue told CNA. “What Daniel O’Connell really did was produce a political sense in Ireland that was never previously generated. Irish Catholics lived in appalling poverty and were neglected. He energized them. He brought Church and laity together into politics and constitutionalism.”

O’Donoghue explained how O’Connell’s arousal of a nationwide Irish Catholic consciousness impacted politics and society but also had far-reaching consequences beyond Irish shores. 

“When Irish Catholics emigrated, which of course many were forced to do, many of them were already politically aware. That’s why Irish people got so rapidly into American politics and into Australian politics later.”

“He was part of the enormous revival of Irish Catholicism in the 19th century. Before the Act of Union, various relief acts had been passed so Catholics officially could become things like judges or sheriffs, but none really were appointed in numbers. He was blistering in highlighting the difference between the law and reality. He was liberal, which amazed people; he believed strongly in parliamentary democracy. Many Catholics were monarchists and tending to be absolutists and he was having none of that. Under no circumstances would he approve of violence.”

Coll told CNA how O’Connell’s personal reputation extended his influence worldwide: “The fact that he could remain a devoted and practicing Catholic — while supporting the separation of church and state, the ending of Anglican privileges and discrimination based on religious affiliation, and the extension of individual liberties, including those in the sphere of politics — made him a hero and inspiration to Catholic liberals in many European countries.”

Coll continued: “The fact that his political movement was based upon popular support and the mobilization of the mass of the people, while yet being nonviolent and orderly, gave proof that political agitation did not necessarily have to be anticlerical or bloody. The attention his movement and opinions received in the continental European press was remarkable, as were the number and distinction of European writers and political figures who visited Ireland with the express purpose of securing an audience with O’Connell.”

Coll agreed firmly with historians who believe no other Irish political figure of the 19th or early 20th century enjoyed such an international reputation as did O’Connell throughout his later public career. 

Among those whom O’Connell also influenced were Eamon de Valera, president of Ireland; Frederick Douglass, social reformer and slavery abolitionist in the United States; and Gen. Charles de Gaulle. Indeed, de Gaulle, when on an extended visit to Ireland, insisted on visiting Derrynane House in Kerry, the home of Daniel O’Connell. 

When asked how he knew about O’Connell, de Gaulle replied: “My grandmother wrote a book about O’Connell.” The grandmother in question was Joséphine de Gaulle (née Maillot), a descendant of the McCartans of County Down and his paternal grandmother, who wrote “Daniel O’Connell, Le Libérateur de l’Irlande” in 1887. De Gaulle’s father, Henri, was also a historian interested in O’Connell. 

In The Tablet, Dermot McCarthy, former secretary to the Office of the Irish Prime Minister, wrote that O’Connell’s primary legacy was “lifting a demoralized and impoverished Catholic people off their knees to recognize their inherent dignity and realize their capacity to be protagonists of their own destiny.”

Minister for Culture, Communications, and Sport Patrick O’Donovan said last month: “Daniel O’Connell was one of the most important figures in Irish political history, not just for what he achieved, but for how he achieved it. He believed in peaceful reform, in democracy, and in civil rights; ideas and concepts to which we should still aspire today.” 

However, in its official communiques praising O’Connell, the Irish government minister failed to mention the word “Catholic” even once. 

For O’Donoghue, the absence of any Catholic context is unsurprising given the prevailing secular attitudes among many of the country’s politicians. 

Bishop Fintan Monahan, bishop of Killaloe, visited O’Connell’s grave in Rome during the Jubilee for Youth, telling CNA: “In 1847, the Great Famine was at its most severe and O’Connell’s final speech in the House of Commons was an appeal for help for its victims. Due to his physical weakness, this final speech was barely audible.”

O’Connell died in Genoa on May 15, 1847, on the 17th anniversary of the first time he presented himself at the House of Commons.

It was hoped that his heart might be interred in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. However, Pope Pius IX feared offending the British government on whose goodwill Catholic missionaries depended in many parts of the world. A requiem Mass was offered for O’Connell in the Roman baroque basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle. The attendance included the future cardinal, now canonized saint, John Henry Newman. 

O’Connell had said he wished to bequeath “his soul to God, his body to Ireland, and his heart to Rome.”

Children process into the St. Mary al-Tahir Church, also known as the Church of the Immaculate Conception, in Baghdad, for their first Communion. / Credit: Chaldean Catholic Church

ACI MENA, Aug 9, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Eleven years have passed since ISIS seized Mosul and the Nineveh towns and with every anniversary commemorated each year, the same question arises: How many Iraqi Christians remain?

Despite tensions and renewed challenges from regional conflict, Iraqi churches remain full. Just weeks ago, Christians there celebrated joyfully as 1,000 young boys and girls received their first Communion.

In Iraq’s capital, Chaldean parishes celebrated first Communion for 50 children, while 32 others received the sacrament at the Syriac Catholic parish. 

Most significantly, 11 children took their first Communion at the Syriac Catholic Church of Our Lady of Deliverance — the same church that witnessed a horrific massacre in 2010, when dozens of worshippers and two priests were killed and hundreds wounded.

Guarding the deposit of faith

In Qaraqosh (Baghdeda), churches belonging to the Syriac Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul and its dependencies celebrated first Communion for 461 children across three separate ceremonies. Another 30 children received the sacrament in nearby Bashiqa and Bartella, with liturgies led by Archbishop Benedictos Younan Hanno.

During his homilies, Hanno praised the faithful’s determination to stay on their ancestral land and their courage in returning after forced displacement. He commended their commitment to preserving their faith and passing it to their children, who have grown up in stable, united, devoted families.

Some celebrate, others wait

In Basra, Christian families have dwindled to fewer than 350 across all denominations — Chaldean, Armenian, Syriac, Presbyterian, and Latin — yet they remain on their land despite harsh living and environmental conditions. This year, the Chaldean and Syriac Catholic dioceses postponed first Communion celebrations, waiting to gather enough children for next year’s celebration.

In Karemlesh, part of the Chaldean Archdiocese of Mosul, 26 children are preparing to receive the Eucharist. Meanwhile, the Chaldean Diocese of Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah celebrated first Communion for 26 children at Kirkuk’s Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. The Church in Sulaymaniyah, like Basra, is looking ahead to next year.

Towns of northern Iraq

Ankawa’s churches within the Chaldean Diocese of Erbil experienced two extraordinary days. 

Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda presided over three Masses where 210 children received first Communion. In his homilies, he emphasized that the sacrament goes far beyond beautiful photos and white gowns: It represents a lifelong commitment that transforms communicants’ homes into places where Jesus’ presence lives through forgiveness, active listening, and generosity.

Children process into the St. Mary al-Tahir Church, also known as the Church of the Immaculate Conception, in Baghdad, for their first Communion.

Also, in Ankawa, 66 children from the Syriac Catholic Diocese of Adiabene received the Eucharist, along with 15 others in Duhok. In the Chaldean Diocese of Duhok, 75 children celebrated first Communion, while 150 did so in neighboring Zakho Diocese. A similar number in Alqosh Diocese, bereaved of its spiritual shepherd, will receive the sacrament in coming days.

The Syriac Orthodox Church also celebrated first Communion for about 70 children in Bartella and 40 in Ankawa, including children from other denominations.

This story was first published by ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner. It has been translated for and adapted by CNA.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. / Credit: Public domain

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 9, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Aug. 9 the Catholic Church remembers St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as Edith Stein. St. Teresa converted from Judaism to Catholicism in the course of her work as a philosopher and later entered the Carmelite order. She died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1942.

Stein was born on Oct. 12, 1891 — a date that coincided with her family’s celebration of Yom Kippur, the Jewish “day of atonement.” Stein’s father died when she was just 2 years old, and she gave up the practice of her Jewish faith as an adolescent.

As a young woman with profound intellectual gifts, Stein gravitated toward the study of philosophy and became a pupil of the renowned professor Edmund Husserl in 1913. Through her studies, the nonreligious Stein met several Christians whose intellectual and spiritual lives she admired.

After earning her degree with the highest honors from Gottingen University in 1915, she served as a nurse in an Austrian field hospital during World War I. She returned to academic work in 1916, earning her doctorate after writing a highly-regarded thesis on the phenomenon of empathy. She remained interested in the idea of religious commitment but had not yet made such a commitment herself.

In 1921, while visiting friends, Stein spent an entire night reading the autobiography of the 16th-century Carmelite nun St. Teresa of Ávila. “When I had finished the book,” she later recalled, “I said to myself: This is the truth.” She was baptized into the Catholic Church on the first day of January, 1922.

Stein intended to join the Carmelites immediately after her conversion but would ultimately have to wait another 11 years before taking this step. Instead, she taught at a Dominican school and gave numerous public lectures on women’s issues. She spent 1931 writing a study of St. Thomas Aquinas and took a university teaching position in 1932.

In 1933, the rise of Nazism, combined with her Jewish ethnicity, put an end to her teaching career. After a painful parting with her mother, who did not understand her Christian conversion, she entered a Carmelite convent in 1934, taking the name “Teresa Benedicta of the Cross” as a symbol of her acceptance of suffering.

“I felt,” she wrote, “that those who understood the cross of Christ should take upon themselves on everybody’s behalf.” She saw it as her vocation “to intercede with God for everyone,” but she prayed especially for the Jews of Germany whose tragic fate was becoming clear.

“I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death,” she wrote in 1939, “so that the Lord will be accepted by his people and that his kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world.”

After completing her final work, a study of St. John of the Cross titled “The Science of the Cross,” Teresa Benedicta was arrested along with her sister Rosa (who had also become a Catholic) and the members of her religious community on Aug. 7, 1942. The arrests came in retaliation against a protest letter by the Dutch bishops decrying the Nazi treatment of Jews.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz on Aug. 9, 1942. Pope John Paul II canonized her in 1998 and proclaimed her a co-patroness of Europe the next year.

This story was first published on Aug. 9, 2011, and has been updated.

President Donald Trump answers questions during a signing ceremony with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (left) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan (right) in the State Dining Room of the White House on Aug. 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The agreement signed during the ceremony is intended to bring an end to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijani that has lasted for decades. / Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 8, 2025 / 18:23 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:

Armenian and Azerbaijan presidents sign historic peace deal at White House

After decades of conflict over the ethnically Armenian-Christian Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a peace deal on Friday, Aug. 8. 

Pashinyan hailed the moment as “opening a chapter of peace” and “laying foundations to a better story than the one we had in the past.” Aliyev rejoined that the nations were “writing a great new history.”

The peace deal cemented by U.S. President Donald Trump includes a trade deal that will create a transit corridor between the two countries, to be named the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.”

USCIRF releases report on religious freedom in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released a report on religious freedom in Houthi-controlled areas of northern Yemen, stating that attacks on religious groups including Baha’is, Christians, Jews, and Ahmadiyya Muslims have escalated since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel. 

The Houthis have escalated their systematic and egregious violations of religious freedom affecting a range of groups,” the USCIRF stated in an Aug. 6 press release. “By advancing its religious ideology across sectors ... the Houthis are severely restricting religious freedom in a country with a millennia-long history of religious diversity.” The statement noted that the “few remaining members of minority faith communities” have gone into hiding to avoid Houthi threats and intimidation. 

Nearly 100 Russian Catholics gather in solidarity with Rome pilgrims for Jubilee of Youth

A group of 90 young Russian Catholics unable to travel to Rome for the July 28 to Aug. 3 Jubilee of Youth gathered together in Moscow for their own event in solidarity with pilgrims in the Eternal City, according to a report from Fides news agency. 

“We, too, were able to feel like pilgrims of hope and part of the universal Church. When we return home, we will take this spark of hope back to our parishes and to the entire country,” said Roman Andreev, the Moscow Archdiocese head of youth ministry. 

Young people gathered from cities across the archdiocese, as well as the suffragan dioceses of St. Clement and St. Joseph, and were accompanied by Moscow Auxiliary Bishop Nikolaj Dubinin. The young Russian pilgrims processed through the city, visiting its various Catholic churches, and met in the evening at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. 

Austrian bishop criticizes sculpture of Trump crucified: ‘Simply abnormal’ 

Bishop Hermann Glettler of Innsbruck, Austria, in an interview with Swiss outlet kath.ch on Wednesday decried a sculpture depicting U.S. President Donald Trump crucified, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner. 

The bishop condemned the work for portraying Trump, whom he described as “an egomaniac dealmaker from Washington,” on the cross, which is a “central Christian symbol.”

The life-size sculpture shows Trump in orange prison clothing strapped to a white cross, and its estimated price is around 20,000 euros (about $23,300).

“I find the work of the British [artist] Mason Storm, which was supposedly already shown in Vienna, simply abnormal,” Glettler said. “There is simply nothing to be seen in this that would somehow make sense.”

Third Pan African Congress on theology, society, and pastoral life kicks off in Ivory Coast

Participants in the third Pan African Catholic Congress on Theology, Society, and Pastoral Life have called for “spiritual and structural reawakening” in Africa, along with their commitment to confront issues affecting the continent during the five-day event, reported ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa. 

Organized by the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) on the theme “Journeying Together in Hope as God’s Family,” the third Pan-African Catholic Congress has been described as a call for the people of God in Africa to rediscover their shared vocation as Christians and members of the universal body of Christ.

Pope Leo calls on Malawi to make its first Eucharistic congress a time of ‘profound grace’

Pope Leo XIV has called upon the people of God in Malawi to make their first-ever national Eucharistic congress a time of “profound grace” and an opportunity to rekindle missionary zeal in their country, ACI Africa reported. 

In a message read by the apostolic nuncio to Malawi and Zambia, Archbishop Gian Luca Perici, Leo expressed his solidarity to the faithful gathered for the official opening of the Congress and conveyed his prayer that the event would be “a moment to deepen the love for the most holy Eucharist, strengthen the bonds of communion among the people of God, and inspire a renewed missionary zeal in every diocese, parish, and family.”

A view of the ruined Urukami Cathedral after the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing of Nagasaki. / Credit: Yamahata Yōsuke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Newsroom, Aug 8, 2025 / 16:53 pm (CNA).

As night fell over Nagasaki, Japan, on Friday, the reconstructed Urakami Cathedral — once destroyed by the world’s second atomic bomb — became the focus of a 24-hour prayer vigil that bridged continents, generations, and faiths in a unified call for nuclear disarmament.

Survivors rebuilt the cathedral on its original site, completing reconstruction in 1959; local histories record that thousands of parishioners perished on Aug. 9, 1945.

Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura of Nagasaki welcomed an international delegation including four U.S. Catholic leaders: Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago; Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C.; Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle; and Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their visit formed part of an Aug. 5–10 “Pilgrimage of Peace” aligned with the Church’s Jubilee of Hope.

Sacred ground, sacred witness

Friday’s commemorations included the Interfaith Memorial Service for Atomic Bomb Victims at Hypocenter Park, near the 11:02 a.m. detonation point of the plutonium device known as “Fat Man.”

Bells from Urakami Cathedral tolled during the memorials, a sonic reminder of the passage from devastation to a global symbol of peace.

Cupich, speaking in Nagasaki on Aug. 7, called the 1945 atomic bombings “deeply flawed” because they abandoned the just-war principle of noncombatant immunity.

The cardinal emphasized the importance of finding “people who are so committed to moral limits to warfare that acts of intentionally killing innocents is unthinkable.”

Earlier in the week, McElroy underscored the Church’s stance, reiterating Pope Francis’ categorical rejection of atomic weapons and warning that deterrence “is not a step on the road to nuclear disarmament but a morass.”

Global prayer network

The pilgrimage program in Nagasaki included perpetual adoration at Urakami Cathedral, a peace Mass on Aug. 9, and a torch procession from the cathedral to Hypocenter Park — symbolically linking the city’s spiritual rebuilding to its ground zero.

Universities from Japan and the United States — including Georgetown, Notre Dame, Loyola Chicago, Sophia (Tokyo), and Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University — joined an “Encounters and Hope” symposium examining Catholic ethics and nuclear policy. These elements were coordinated through the Partnership for a World Without Nuclear Weapons, a collaboration among the dioceses of Santa Fe, Seattle, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.

Conceived in 1994, Thaddeus Daniel Pierce was born in 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of Lindsey Pierce

CNA Staff, Aug 8, 2025 / 16:23 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.

Baby born from 30-year-old embryo through embryo adoption 

Thaddeus Daniel Pierce is the world’s oldest baby, born more than 30 years after he was conceived in a laboratory as an embryo. 

Born July 26, Thaddeus had been stored as an embryo since the 1990s. His biological mother, 62-year-old Linda Archerd, donated her three remaining embryos long after she underwent in vitro fertilization in May 1994.

She and her husband gave birth to a child through IVF but later went through a divorce. Archerd won custody of the embryos and paid for the expensive storage each year, hoping to one day implant the three children. Archerd, a Christian, did not want to destroy the embryos or give them up for scientific experimentation. But when she became too old to carry them, Archerd reached out to an embryo adoption agency.

Many embryo adoption agencies will not take older embryos. These unborn children may be less likely to survive or develop, and the thawing process can be dangerous. But Archerd found a program at the Nightlight Christian Adoptions Agency in which parents accept older embryos at the chance that they will survive.

Lindsey and Tim Pierce had been trying for a baby for seven years. The Pierces adopted Thaddeus as an embryo through the agency’s “Open Hearts” program for embryos that are “hard to place.”

Of Archerd’s three remaining embryos, Thaddeus was the only one to survive.

Investigative report finds Virginia school office bypassed parents, funded students’ abortions

A Virginia public school allegedly arranged and paid for the abortions of two pregnant high school students, bypassing their parents, according to an investigative report.

The report by Walter Curt Dispatch Investigations found that Centreville High School staff arranged abortions for two pregnant high school girls in 2021.

One of the girls had the abortion at 17, while the other girl, who was five months pregnant, ran from the clinic after a social worker allegedly told her she “had no other choice.” The girls say that the school principal knew and funded the abortions.

The local abortion clinic, Falls Church Healthcare Center, has a metal bolt across the entrance, and neighbors say it is always locked, according to Walter Curt’s report.  

The school district, Fairfax County Public Schools, said in a statement that it is “launching an immediate and comprehensive investigation” into the reports.

Louisiana Planned Parenthood locations close due to lack of funding 

Two Planned Parenthood locations in Louisiana will close due to lack of federal funding, a move pro-life advocates applaud.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the closures “a major win,” noting that “abortion should NEVER be considered health care.” Louisiana protects life through all stages of pregnancy, with a few exceptions.

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast President Melaney Linton in a statement blamed “political warfare” and noted that as many as 200 Planned Parenthood locations could close as a result of the loss of funding.

Benjamin Clapper, the executive director of Louisiana Right to Life, reaffirmed the pro-life movement’s commitment to “always love and serve both mom and baby.”

New Massachusetts law protects abortionists, requires ‘emergency abortions’

Massachusetts this week passed a law to protect abortionists who prescribe and ship abortion drugs to places where abortion is illegal or restricted.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday signed the abortion shield law, which also mandates so-called “emergency abortions” to be performed by every acute care hospital in the state.

The new law also prevents disclosure of an abortionist’s name and requires local authorities to not cooperate with federal or out-of-state investigations into “abortion care.”

Pope Leo XIV and St. Augustine. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News and Public Domain

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 8, 2025 / 15:53 pm (CNA).

Today marks three months since Pope Leo XIV first appeared on the central balcony of the Vatican basilica after being elected the successor of St. Peter.

In that first urbi et orbi message, delivered on May 8, the Holy Father expressed the words that would mark the beginning of his pontificate: “I am an Augustinian, a son of St. Augustine, who once said, ‘With you I am a Christian, and for you I am a bishop.’ In this sense, all of us can journey together toward the homeland that God has prepared for us.”

Over the last three months, Pope Leo has cited his spiritual father, St. Augustine, on multiple occasions, establishing a pastoral approach deeply rooted in the Augustinian tradition.

In messages about artificial intelligence and in speeches addressed to young people or pilgrims, Pope Leo XIV has taken every opportunity — through his speeches, audiences, and homilies — to offer valuable teachings inspired by St. Augustine of Hippo.

In most of his discourses, he has quoted one of the saint’s best-known works: “Confessions.” He did so in his homily during the Mass for the inauguration of his Petrine ministry, celebrated on May 18. He has also referred to other fundamental works by the bishop of Hippo, such as the “Commentary on the Psalms” and “The City of God.”

Unity in Christ

One of the recurring themes in Pope Leo XIV’s teaching during these first months has been the importance of unity in Christ. It is no coincidence that the Holy Father chose the motto “In Illo uno unum” (“In the One — that is Christ — we are one”), taken from St. Augustine, for his episcopal ministry.

During an audience with ecumenical delegations, the pope recalled that unity “has always been a constant concern of mine, as witnessed by the motto I chose for my episcopal ministry.”

“Our communion is realized to the extent that we meet in the Lord Jesus. The more faithful and obedient we are to him, the more united we are among ourselves. We Christians, then, are all called to pray and work together to reach this goal, step by step, which is and remains the work of the Holy Spirit,” the pope said on that occasion.

He has also made this call to unity in other contexts, such as in his message to the Pontifical Mission Societies, in which he recalled that “it is in the Trinity that all things find their unity. This dimension of our Christian life and mission is close to my heart,” noting that “Christ is our savior and in him we are one, a family of God, beyond the rich variety of our languages, cultures, and experiences.”

The heavenly homeland

“You have made us for yourself, [Lord], and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you” (“Confessions,” 1,1.1). This famous quote, which summarizes the core of Augustinian spirituality, has been cited by the Holy Father on more than one occasion, such as in his message to the International Federation of Catholic Universities.

Pope Leo XIV thus reminds us that human beings were created for God and that only in him can we find complete happiness.

In his message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, he emphasized the “pilgrim dimension” of the Church, “perpetually journeying toward her final homeland, sustained by a hope that is a theological virtue.”

He warned that “each time the Church gives in to the temptation of ‘sedentarization’ and ceases to be a ‘civitas peregrine,’ God’s people journeying toward the heavenly homeland (cf. Augustine, ‘De Civitate Dei,’ Books XIV-XVI), she ceases to be ‘in the world’ and becomes ‘of the world’ (cf. Jn 15:19).”

Addressing young people participating in an event in Medjugorje, he recalled an idea of St. Augustine, who “does not speak about the house of the Lord as a distant destination but rather announces the joy of a journey experienced together, as a pilgrim people.”

A faith lived with humility and compassion

In light of the parable of the good Samaritan, Pope Leo XIV exhorted the faithful in a homily delivered on July 13 in Castel Gandolfo to look at our neighbor “with the eyes of the heart.”

Quoting St. Augustine, he emphasized that “Jesus wanted to be known as our neighbor. Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ makes us realize that he is the one who cared for the half-dead man beaten by robbers and left on the side of the road (‘De Doctrina Christiana,’ I, 30.33).” 

In a June video message addressed to the youth of Chicago and the whole world, the Holy Father recalled that the saint of Hippo taught that “if we want the world to be a better place, we have to begin with ourselves, we have to begin with our own lives, our own hearts.”

Also, during the June 25 general audience, he recalled the words of St. Augustine in his work “Sermones,” in which he stated that “the crowd jostles, faith touches.”

“Every time we perform an act of faith addressed to Jesus, contact is established with him, and immediately his grace comes out from him. At times we are unaware of it, but in a secret and real way, grace reaches us and gradually transforms our life from within,” the Holy Father said.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Judge Yvette M. Bryant handed down Patrick Brice’s sentence after he was found guilty of assaulting then-84-year-old Richard Schaefer and then-73-year-old Mark Crosby on May 26, 2023, when the two were providing sidewalk counseling in which they encouraged potential Planned Parenthood clients in Baltimore to choose life instead of getting an abortion. / Credit: Eric Stocklin/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 8, 2025 / 15:23 pm (CNA).

A 28-year-old man was found guilty of assaulting two elderly pro-life activists in front of the Planned Parenthood facility in Baltimore but was sentenced to just one year of home detention and avoided any jail time.

Judge Yvette M. Bryant handed down Patrick Brice’s sentence after he was found guilty of assaulting then-84-year-old Richard Schaefer and then-73-year-old Mark Crosby on May 26, 2023, when the two were providing sidewalk counseling in which they encouraged potential Planned Parenthood clients to choose life instead of getting an abortion.

The Baltimore Banner reported that Brice told the judge: “I just snapped one day” during the sentencing hearing and apologized to the victims. The outlet reported that Crosby shouted “What about my rights and well-being?” at Bryant after she delivered the lenient sentence.

Prosecutors had hoped to put Brice behind bars for 10 years, and the Thomas More Society condemned the sentence as “disgraceful.”

“One of the victims was knocked unconscious. The other suffered broken facial bones and a lifelong eye impairment,” said Tom Brejcha, the president and chief counsel for the Thomas More Society, which provided Crosby with victim’s counsel after the attack.

“This was an act of cowardice and cruelty, and sheer mayhem,” Brejcha continued. “This crime deserves far more serious consequences than a ‘get out of jail free’ card and a one-year home detention that amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist.”

CNA interviewed both Schaefer and Crosby after the attack in 2023. They both kept up their pro-life activism outside of the Baltimore Planned Parenthood in spite of their injuries.

At the time, Schaefer said he had a brief discussion with Brice that was “kind of cordial” before the attack. When he turned around and bent down to replenish some of the pro-life material he was handing out, Brice knocked him into a plate-glass window and then kicked him after he had fallen to the ground.

When Crosby rushed over to help, Brice hit him in the face and then kicked him after he hit the ground.

Crosby suffered a severe concussion, fractured fingers, and a lifelong eye impairment. At the time, he had internal bleeding in one of his eyes and temporarily lost sight in that eye. Schafer did not go to the hospital immediately but saw a doctor later, after he realized he was bleeding from his head. He said Crosby’s intervention likely saved him from more serious injuries.

Brejcha said the light sentence “sends a dangerous message that pro-lifers can be attacked with impunity” and warned that it “not only jeopardizes the safety of peaceful demonstrators, but it undermines the rule of law and the right to free speech.”

“No one should fear being beaten on the sidewalk for simply standing up for the most vulnerable among us,” Brejcha said. “Violence must never be tolerated, excused, or minimized, especially when it’s politically motivated. Justice was not served in this case, and we must continue to fight until all peaceful pro-life voices are protected.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with EWTN News anchor Raymond Arroyo on “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” on Aug. 7, 2025. / Credit: “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 8, 2025 / 14:08 pm (CNA).

As the 100th day of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate approaches, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States and the Vatican have a “good relationship, but it’s new.” He explained: “A new papacy” brings “a new direction.”

In a Thursday interview with EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” Rubio explained the first American pope can benefit U.S. and Vatican relations because the pope can understand Americans’ “history, our politics, our culture, [and] what’s going on here.”

Rubio discussed that when previously interacting with leaders of the Catholic Church, they were “almost invariably from some other country.” So when in Rome for Pope Leo XIV’s installation, Rubio said it was “almost surreal” to “interact with an American.” 

“Right now it’s new and the papacy has only been there for less than 100 days,” Rubio said. But there has already been “good communication” between the nation and the Vatican, specifically about the Catholic church attacked in Gaza, he said. Following the bombing, Rubio indicated, the U.S. spoke with the Church “extensively about Gaza” and “to facilitate visits.”

“I’m speculating … but I think one of the things that the cardinals probably chose is someone that could provide a period of stability and consistency as the Church faces a myriad of challenges around the world,” America’s top diplomat said. Someone who can “reach out to areas where the Church is growing but also reinvigorate the Church in some places where perhaps it’s struggling.”

“I know they’re deeply concerned, for example, that the Church is being heavily persecuted in Nicaragua,” Rubio explained. “They’re always concerned about the Church in China, which has been a point of friction with the U.S. government in the past.”

“I think the Vatican can play a very key role in many parts of the world. They’re actually very skilled diplomatically. In the end, their No. 1 goal has to be … the Church and its presence in different places.” 

The Vatican has “offered to get involved in any way [it] can” when it comes to “bringing about peace as a forum or as a facilitator,” Rubio said.

null / Credit: felipe caparros/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Aug 8, 2025 / 13:38 pm (CNA).

Just before the state of Florida executed Edward Zakrzewski on July 31, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops (FCCB) called for a novena asking the faithful to pray for an end to Florida’s death penalty.

The novena began Aug. 6 and concludes Aug. 14, the memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest executed in Auschwitz in 1941.

Zakrzewski’s execution marks the state’s ninth this year and sets a record for the most executions in a state in a single year since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Nationally, there has been a total of 28 executions in the first seven months of 2025, the highest in a decade.

The Florida bishops wrote that capital punishment is “harmful and unnecessary,” saying that “state-sanctioned killing further distorts society’s understanding of the sacredness of all human life, diminishing the recognition of our own inherent dignity and that of others.”

“We are called to mercy and compassion, not violence and vengeance,” the bishops continued. “With mercy towards the offenders, who themselves have often been victimized in life, and compassion for the victims of violence and their families, whose grief is not eliminated by the taking of another life, justice can be better served.”

Zakrzewski, convicted of the 1994 killing by machete of his wife and two children, was put to death by lethal injection at Florida State Prison. Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed 11 death warrants in 2025. The two remaining scheduled executions are for Kayle Bates on Aug. 19 for the 1982 murder of a woman in Bay County, and Curtis Windom on Aug. 28 for the 1992 killings of three people in Orange County.

The pace of these scheduled executions has drawn sharp criticism from Florida’s bishops as well as other advocates nationwide, who argue that capital punishment violates the sanctity of human life and is no longer necessary to safeguard society.

“Our ability to protect society by incarcerating the offender for life eliminates the need for executions, making every execution an act of revenge that outweighs any possible good to society,” the FCCB wrote.

Michael Sheedy, FCCB executive director, has repeatedly written to DeSantis on the bishops’ behalf. In his most recent letter on July 22, he called Zakrzewski’s crimes “especially heinous” but asked the governor to stay the execution and commute his sentence to life imprisonment without parole.

“Every human life, given by God, is sacred,” Sheedy wrote. “There is a way to punish without ending another human life: Lifelong incarceration without the possibility of parole is a severe yet more humane punishment that ensures societal safety, allows the guilty the possibility of redemption, and offers finality to court processes.”

While the Catholic Church has historically allowed the death penalty under strict conditions and where no other means could protect society, in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II said it should only be permitted in cases of “absolute necessity.”

In 2018, Pope Francis went further and had the Catechism of the Catholic Church revised to reflect the death penalty’s inadmissibility.

While acknowledging the Church had long considered the death penalty an “acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good,” the revised catechism now states that “the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes” and the death penalty attacks the “inviolability and dignity of the person.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has long advocated for the abolition of capital punishment, publishing a statement calling for its cessation in 2005.