Holy Trinity Catholic Church

Before the Angelus on July 13, 2025, Pope Leo XIV celebrated a Mass for local Catholics, religious leaders, and civil authorities at the 17th-century Pontifical Parish of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo’s main square. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 14, 2025 / 15:27 pm (CNA).

Upon arriving at Castel Gandolfo on Aug. 13, Pope Leo XIV called for a peaceful resolution to the war between Russia and Ukraine ahead of the upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The meeting, scheduled for Aug. 15 in Alaska, will address the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which the Russian army invaded three years ago.

The Holy Father stated: “We must always seek a ceasefire; the violence, the many deaths must stop. Let’s see how they can reach an agreement. Because after all this time, what is the purpose of war? We must always rely on dialogue, on diplomatic work, and not on violence or weapons.”

According to Vatican News, Pope Leo XIV also spoke about the possible deportation of the population of Gaza.

“The humanitarian crisis must be resolved. We cannot go on like this. We know the violence of terrorism, and we honor the many who have died, as well as the hostages — they must be freed. But we must also think of the many who are dying of hunger,” the Holy Father said.

He noted that “the Holy See cannot stop” the conflicts, but, he said, “we are working, let’s say, on ‘soft diplomacy,’ always inviting, encouraging the pursuit of nonviolence through dialogue and seeking solutions, because these problems cannot be resolved with war.”

The Holy Father is in Castel Gandolfo for a second vacation. He will remain at the papal residence, located on the shores of Lake Albano, until Aug. 19.

On Friday, Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he will celebrate Mass at the pontifical parish in Castel Gandolfo.

On Sunday, Aug. 17, at 9:30 a.m. local time, the Holy Father will arrive at the shrine of Santa Maria della Rotonda in Albano, an Italian town bordering Castel Gandolfo, to celebrate Mass with a group of poor people receiving assistance from Caritas.

After Mass, he will head to Castel Gandolfo to pray the Angelus at noon from Liberty Plaza.

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

St. Maximilian Kolbe (bearded, in front row, center) and his companions in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1936. / Credit: Public Domain/Courtesy of “Maximilian Kolbe: The Saint of Auschwitz”/Sophia Institute Press

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 14, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

When the American military dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, 80 years ago on Aug. 9, 1945, the city was completely devastated — more than 40,000 people were instantly killed by the blast as well as about 60,000 more in the following five years as a result of radiation-related diseases.

Everything within a mile and a half of the plutonium bomb’s hypocenter was destroyed, including 14,000 homes and the Urakami Cathedral, where the faithful had gathered that morning for Mass in preparation for the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary shortly before “Fat Man” was detonated.

While the bombing devastated both the city of Nagasaki and its large Catholic population, the monastery of Seibo no Kishi located in the mountains on the outskirts of Nagasaki was spared.

A Franciscan monastery built by Father Maximilian Kolbe and his supporters in 1931, this spot served as the second location for Kolbe’s “City of the Immaculata” mission that had started with his Niepokalanów monastery in Teresin, Poland.

Maximilian Kolbe’s missionary work in Japan

Kolbe was determined to expand foreign missionary work to Japan, even after having launched the monthly magazine Knight of the Immaculata in Kraków in 1922. He approached Father Alfonso Orlini, the father general of the Conventual Franciscans, in 1930 for permission to start a mission in Japan after having met four Japanese students on a train who shared the urgent need for missionaries in their home country.

Although he was initially told to go to China instead, Kolbe remained determined to travel to Japan and arrived in Nagasaki — a city known for its rich Catholic history — by ship in March 1930 alongside a handful of other friars.

Over the next six years, Kolbe and the friars would build up Mugenzai no Sono (a literal translation of “Garden of the Immaculata”), which would later have its name changed to Seibo no Kishi.

Here, the Franciscan friars received permission from the bishop of Nagasaki to publish and distribute the first edition of the Mugenzai no Seibo no Kishi — Knight of the Immaculata — magazine, as Kolbe agreed to teach theology at the seminary in return.

The friars were also able to begin building a monastery and various other buildings for their “city,” as Kolbe had chosen a plot of land in the suburb of Hongouchi that sat behind a mountain and faced away from Nagasaki. While many originally criticized this placement, it was this strange positioning that would protect the monastery and its missionaries later on.

Seibo no Kishi would consist of a chapel and wooden house, a large hall for meetings and classes, and a workshop to hold printing equipment. Additionally, Kolbe would build a nearby grotto completed with the placement of a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes on May 1, 1932.

Seibo no Kishi’s survival following the atomic bombing

After six years of missionary work and experiencing several periods of poor health in Japan, Kolbe was asked to leave and return to care for his foundation in Poland in 1936.

Upon his return to Poland, Kolbe wrote a letter to a friend in Nagasaki that read: “I will never forget Japan; indeed, I always pray for it. I will work with every effort for the salvation of Japanese souls. The Japanese are a people who really search for authentic religion, so they will obtain many graces from the Lord God.”

Eventually imprisoned by the Nazis and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, Kolbe volunteered to die in the place of another prisoner and was killed on Aug. 14, 1941.

Almost four years later, Seibo no Kishi would sustain no more damage than a few broken panes of stained glass during the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, thanks to its location behind a mountain. In the days following the attack, Seibo no Kishi’s missionaries would minister to those who were injured, sick, and dying as a result of the atomic blast.

Today, the Seibo no Kishi monastery and Hongouchi church still exist within Nagasaki and are open to visitors. The Japanese edition of the Knight of Immaculata magazine also continues to be published by the Conventual Franciscans in Japan, celebrating its 1,000th issue in 2021.

The issue featured an article on the magazine’s history while also giving a nod to its first publication in which Kolbe discussed topics such as the Miraculous Medal and the Immaculate Virgin Mary — the centerpiece of Kolbe’s Militia Immaculata and Niepokalanów mission in both Poland and Japan.

Writing to another missionary friar in 1935, Kolbe spoke of his desire for “assimilation to [the Immaculate Virgin Mary]; to breathe her, and to live eternally according to her spirit; and of much toil and exhausting but fruitful labor; and much, much suffering; and heroic victories; and the sweetness of the name of Mary.”

“One effort alone in Niepokalanów is essential; that is, day by day we must become evermore the property of the Immaculate. When this happens, then everything else will come to us with her,” the letter continued. “Hence, the Church applies the words of holy Scripture to her: ‘All good things came to me along with her’ [Wis 7:11].”

This story was first published on Aug. 9, 2024, and has been updated.

The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need reminds us that “women religious are often on the front lines of wars.” / Credit: ACN

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 16:55 pm (CNA).

The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) joined the International Union of Superiors General in its call to pray and fast for world peace on Aug. 14, the eve of the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In a statement released Aug. 13, Regina Lynch, executive president of ACN International, said: “Wherever there is conflict, women and children are marginalized, and it is often they who suffer most. Religious sisters are often on the front lines of wars, helping the innocent in whatever way they can, without regard for their own safety.”

“It is therefore very commendable that this group of women should be leading the way in denouncing warfare and calling for peace and reconciliation,” Lynch said. “ACN is happy to add its voice to the many which are responding to their brave call.”

Pointing to the wars raging all over the world, including in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the International Union of Superiors General — made up of 1,903 female heads of religious congregations from around the world — called for the world to unite in a day of fasting and prayer on Aug. 14 ahead of the celebration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The group said women religious “cannot remain silent spectators” and entrusted themselves to the Mother of God, Our Lady of Peace, “so that she may tenderly answer the cries of the peoples and teach us to be a humble and prophetic presence in places of suffering.”

“Each day we see faces marked by pain, lives shattered, peoples deprived of dignity and peace, especially the women and children,” the organization said.

Lynch emphasized that “Mary is the Queen of Peace. Let us pray that she may touch the hearts of decision-makers all over the world, that they may yearn for the peace of her son, Jesus Christ.”

“On this feast of her assumption into heaven, we recall that there is a woman, in body and spirit, at the side of Our Lord. No doubt she will be sympathetic to the pain and anguish that the women religious are witnessing and shall intercede for an end to the conflicts,” she stated.

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

Religious sisters show their support for the Little Sisters of the Poor outside the Supreme Court, where oral arguments were heard on March 23, 2016, in the Zubik v. Burwell case against the HHS mandate. / Credit: CNA

CNA Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 16:25 pm (CNA).

A federal court has ruled against the Little Sisters of the Poor in their long-running legal dispute over government contraception mandates, dealing a blow to the religious order of sisters even after multiple court victories, including at the Supreme Court.

The legal advocacy group Becket said on Aug. 13 that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of both New Jersey and Pennsylvania in finding that the federal government had not followed protocol when issuing exemptions to contraceptive requirements, including for the Little Sisters.

The district court said that a set of religious exemptions granted by the federal government during the first Trump administration were “arbitrary [and] capricious” and failed to adhere to the requirements of the federal Administrative Procedure Act.

The court has vacated those exemptions “in their entirety,” the Aug. 13 ruling said.

Diana Thomson, a senior attorney with Becket, told CNA that the case is the same one that saw the Little Sisters win a victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020 when a majority of the court’s justices said the exemptions to the contraceptive mandate were legal.

She described the procedural questions in the Aug. 13 ruling as “cutting-floor arguments” that the states had largely ignored several years ago.

“Instead of dropping the case, Pennsylvania and New Jersey revitalized their cutting-floor arguments that they chose not to pursue at the Supreme Court last time and brought them in the district court,” she said.

The district court accepted those arguments “even though the Supreme Court already blessed the rules,” Thomson said.

The court is “trying to find a loophole” to the 2020 Supreme Court ruling, she said.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania had brought the lawsuit against multiple federal agencies and officials, though the Little Sisters of the Poor were attached to the lawsuit as “defendant-intervenors.”

The sisters will appeal the ruling, Thomson said.

“I assume the Trump administration will appeal also,” she said. “But the Little Sisters’ appeal is already on file.”

“We will appeal all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” she said.

In a separate statement, Mark Rienzi, the president of Becket and the lead attorney for the Little Sisters, said it was “bad enough that the district court issued a nationwide ruling invalidating federal religious conscience rules.”

“But even worse is that the district court simply ducked the glaring constitutional issues in this case after waiting five years and not even holding a hearing,” he argued.

“It is absurd to think the Little Sisters might need yet another trip to the Supreme Court to end what has now been more than a dozen years of litigation over the same issue,” he said, adding: “We will fight as far as we need to fight to protect the Little Sisters’ right to care for the elderly in peace.”

A vandalized statue of Mary, the Mother of God, at St. Leo Parish in Hartford, Arkansas, in July 2024. / Credit: Father Joseph Chan

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 13, 2025 / 15:49 pm (CNA).

A report published by the Family Research Council (FRC) documented more than 400 cases of “acts of hostility” against Catholic and other Christian churches in the U.S. in 2024.

The report, published on Aug. 11, found 415 incidents, which included 284 acts of vandalism, 55 cases of arson, 28 gun-related incidents, 14 bomb threats, and 47 other hostile acts.

In every month, there were at least 20 hostile acts against churches, with the highest numbers occurring in June with 49 incidents and February with 45 incidents. The average was 35 incidents per month.

This is a slight downtick from FRC’s 2023 numbers, when the evangelical nonprofit found 485 incidents. Yet, the number is still significantly higher than in previous years: 198 in 2022, 98 in 2021, 55 in 2020, 83 in 2019, and 50 in 2018, the year FRC began tracking hostile incidents.

Neither the perpetrator nor the motive is clear for most incidents, according to FRC. The report notes that some acts appeared to have been motivated by hatred toward Christianity, some by financial gain, and others seemed like they were perpetrated by teenagers “engaging in a destructive pastime.”

There was only one instance in which a pro-abortion motive was found, which is much lower than in 2022, when at least 59 hostile acts were motivated by the perpetrator’s support for abortion. The spike that year is likely related to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

The pro-abortion vandalism occurred at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon, where the vandal defaced a church building with the phrase: “[expletive] you, my body my choice.”

Arielle Del Turco, the director of FRC’s Center for Religious Liberty, said in a statement that “no instance of vandalism or other crimes against churches is acceptable, and political leaders should be quick to condemn such actions and affirm the importance of religious freedom.”

“Religious freedom does not rely on legal protections alone but also on cultural support,” she added. “We must bolster cultural support for religious freedom and respect for our Christian heritage.”

According to the report, there were also 33 instances in which the perpetrator targeted churches because the church embraced “LGBT” pride, which mostly came in the form of stealing the pride flags.

One of the hostile acts documented against Catholic churches was an incident in South San Francisco, California, in January. A man fired gunshots toward St. Augustine Catholic Church, but no one was injured in the attack.

In another incident, a person desecrated a processional crucifix and a statue of the Blessed Mother in a Georgetown University chapel. St. Leo Church in Hartford, Arkansas, was attacked once in 2023 and twice in 2024, which included a vandal destroying statues. Another vandal decapitated a statue of Jesus Christ at Holy Family Roman Catholic Church in Fresh Meadows, New York.

At St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a person discarded about 100 Communion wafers in the church parking lot during an Easter Mass. The priest said at the time that he believed they were likely not consecrated.

FRC President Tony Perkins, a former chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said in a statement the report “clearly shows religious freedom faces substantial threats here at home.”

“Religious freedom is seldom handed to the passive; it is claimed by those who exercise it even when a hostile culture says they may not,” Perkins said.

The report notes that the federal government has grown aware of anti-Christian sentiments within American society, with President Donald Trump signing an executive order to create a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias within federal government policies, regulations, and practices.

“The American woke Left has been intentional in spreading its hostility toward the Christian faith throughout every corner of America,” Perkins said. “We applaud the efforts of the Trump administration, but efforts must be taken at every level of government to protect and promote this fundamental human right.”

“Christians must expect and demand more from their government leaders when it comes to prosecuting and preventing criminal acts targeting religious freedom,” he added.

California, which is the country’s most populous state, recorded 40 hostile acts, which were more than any other state. The second-highest number occurred in Pennsylvania with 29, followed by Florida and New York with 25 each, Texas with 23, and Tennessee and Ohio with 19 each.

null / Credit: HQuality/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 15:19 pm (CNA).

After a lengthy session in Uruguay’s Chamber of Representatives, legislators passed a bill this week that, if passed in the Senate, would legalize euthanasia in the country, making it the third in South America to permit the practice.

Introduced by the Broad Front political coalition at the beginning of the year and approved in July by the lower House’s Committee on Health, the bill will now move to the Senate for consideration. It passed by a margin of 64-29 in a plenary session of the Chamber of Representatives on Aug. 12.

Nearly the entire ruling party bloc as well as members of the opposition voted for the bill, which states that any person over 18 years of age “who suffers from one or more chronic, incurable, and irreversible pathologies or health conditions that seriously impair their quality of life, causing unbearable suffering” may request assisted death.

If approved, Uruguay would become the third country in South America to permit the practice, along with Colombia and Ecuador.

The Catholic Church in Uruguay has spoken out against the bill on numerous occasions. In early August, the prelates of the Episcopal Conference of Uruguay posted a video message calling for a “firm no” to the bill because “causing the death of a patient is ethically unacceptable.”

The bishops emphasized that “the dignity of every person is an absolute, inalienable gift that is never lost” and that “for God, every life is infinitely loved and worthy of all our care.”

“Our society must welcome, protect, and accompany every person until the end of their earthly life,” they affirmed, emphasizing the urgency of “implementing the palliative care law so that no Uruguayan suffers unnecessarily.”

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

null / Credit: Carl DMaster/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 14:49 pm (CNA).

A coalition of 22 attorneys general — all Republican — led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, has called on the Trump administration to reinstate safety protocols for the abortion drug mifepristone, citing severe risks to women’s health. 

In a letter addressed to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Martin Makary, the attorneys general urge Kennedy and Makary to restore safeguards removed by the Obama and Biden administrations or consider withdrawing the drug from the market.

The letter references a study published in April by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. The EPPC study claims mifepristone causes many more serious adverse events, including hemorrhage, sepsis, emergency room visits, and ectopic pregnancy, than stated on the drug’s label, which shows a less than .5% rate of adverse events.

“Recent comprehensive studies of the real-world effects of the chemical abortion drug mifepristone report that serious adverse events occur 22 times more often than stated on the drug’s label, while the drug is less than half as effective as claimed. These facts directly contradict the drug’s primary marketing message of ‘safe’ and ‘effective,’” the letter states.

The study, which examined 865,727 prescribed mifepristone abortions from 2017 to 2023, is the largest known study of the abortion pill. It found that 11% of women “experience at least one serious adverse event or repeated abortion attempt within 45 days of first attempting a mifepristone abortion.”

The attorneys general argue that the FDA should reinstate safety protocols from the 2011 Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, which required in-person prescriptions and provider follow-ups but were later relaxed by the Biden administration.

“The FDA’s removal of these crucial safety protocols in 2016 (and in 2023) that only five years before the FDA considered necessary begs the question of whether the removal was motivated by considerations other than the safety of patients,” the attorneys general wrote. “The current FDA’s dedication to the health and well-being of all Americans is encouraging, as is the much-needed review of mifepristone that Secretary Kennedy has promised.” 

The letter continues: “Currently, a woman can obtain a mifepristone abortion by participating in only one telehealth visit with any approved health care provider (not necessarily a physician), ordering the drugs through a mail-order pharmacy, and self-administering them. And the prescriber is only required to report an adverse event if he or she becomes aware that the patient has died.”

This push follows similar urging by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who, echoing the same EPPC findings, introduced the Restoring Safeguards for Dangerous Abortion Drugs Act in May. 

The bill would direct the FDA to create safeguards on mifepristone. It would also give women who have suffered complications from mifepristone the right to file lawsuits against telehealth providers and pharmacies. It would also prohibit foreign companies from importing and shipping the drug into the U.S.

Hawley urged immediate action to restore safety measures, and like the attorneys general, warned that without such measures, the FDA should consider removing mifepristone until the agency completes a thorough review.

When Hawley asked Kennedy if he was familiar with the study during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing in May, Kennedy said he was. “It’s alarming, and clearly it indicates that, at very least, the label should be changed,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy also “pledged to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the drug,” Hawley said.

Also in May, a coalition of more than 100 pro-life groups, including various Catholic organizations, called for HHS to review the drug’s safety and restore previous federal safety regulations in light of the EPPC study.

Makary previously stated he had no plans to alter mifepristone policies unless data indicated a safety issue. The FDA, which first approved mifepristone in 2000 after a “thorough and comprehensive review,” maintains that periodic evaluations have not identified new safety concerns.

Mifepristone, used with misoprostol to terminate early pregnancies, accounted for 63% of U.S. abortions in 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The number of actual abortions might be higher due to underreporting, according to the organization, which was affiliated with Planned Parenthood until 2007.

The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to mifepristone’s availability in 2024, declining to rule on the legality of relaxed regulations under the Obama and Biden administrations.

Mary Rice Hasson has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Vatican at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She currently serves as the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and is a graduate of Notre Dame Law School. / Credit: Rui Barros Photography

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 13, 2025 / 14:14 pm (CNA).

Catholic researcher and speaker Mary Rice Hasson will receive the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice from Pope Leo XIV, a papal honor recognizing distinguished service to the Catholic Church.

“I’m truly humbled and grateful to receive this honor from Pope Leo XIV, who reminds us that faith lies at the heart of our mission,” Hasson said in a statement. “It’s an honor to serve the Church.” 

The Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice (“For the Church and the Pontiff”), first established by Pope Leo XIII in 1888, is a decoration of the Holy See conferred for dedication to the Church by laypeople and clergy.

It was originally bestowed on men and women who promoted the jubilee and assisted in making the Vatican Exposition successful.

“I’m blessed to be able to integrate my faith and work in a way that serves the Church, and to work alongside so many others with similar commitments,” Hasson told CNA. 

“My personal inspiration, and the touchstone for my service to the Church, comes from Pope St. John Paul II who wrote (in Christifideles Laici) that women have been entrusted with ‘assuring the moral dimension of culture.’”

Hasson is currently a Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and serves as director and co-founder of its Person and Identity Project, an initiative that assists the Church “in promoting the Catholic vision of the human person and responding to the challenges of gender ideology.”

She is also a visiting fellow for the Veritas Center at Franciscan University, an attorney, and a policy expert. Hasson has been a keynote speaker for the Holy See during the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women three times and is a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for its Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth and Committee on Religious Liberty.

The Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, announced that Bishop Michael Burbidge will formally grant the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice to Hasson and fellow honorees at a private ceremony in September.

The diocese reported it “rejoices that our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has bestowed papal honors on 50 members of the diocesan faithful, concluding our 50th anniversary golden jubilee.”

Hasson is one of 10 people who will receive the cross, and another 40 will receive the Benemerenti Medal, another papal award that was established by Pope Pius VI.

An aerial view of the papal palace of Castel Gandolfo near Rome. The apostolic palace is a complex of buildings served for centuries as a summer residence for the pope and overlooks Lake Albano. / Credit: Stefano Tammaro/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on the afternoon of Wednesday, Aug. 13, returned to Castel Gandolfo, where he had resided during his summer vacation in July.

The pontiff left the Vatican around 4:30 p.m. local time and traveled by car to the papal summer home where he stayed July 6–22.

Castel Gandolfo, located 15 miles from Rome on the shores of Lake Albano, has historically been the site of the papal residence during the summer. While Pope Francis decided to stay at the Vatican during the summer, Pope Leo XIV has revived the tradition.

After a day of rest, on Friday, Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to celebrate Mass at the pontifical parish in Castel Gandolfo.

On Sunday, Aug. 17, at 9:30 a.m. local time, the Holy Father will arrive at the shrine in Santa Maria della Rotonda in Albano, an Italian town bordering Castel Gandolfo, to celebrate Mass with a group of poor people receiving assistance from Caritas.

After Mass, he will head to Castel Gandolfo to pray the Angelus at noon in Liberty Plaza.

In addition, according to the Diocese of Albano, he will later share lunch with 100 low-income people at Borgo Laudato Si’, an ecological and social project inspired by Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’. On Sunday afternoon, Aug. 17, the Holy Father will return to the Vatican.

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

Young people participate in the Mass for the first World Children’s Day in May 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 12:20 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has decided that the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day should be incorporated within the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, whose prefect is Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

A rescript published by the Holy See Press Office on Aug. 13 announced the Holy Father’s recent decision, which he made after a meeting on Aug. 6 with Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Vatican Secretariat of State.

On Dec. 8, 2023, Pope Francis established World Children’s Day, organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, saying it would be celebrated worldwide May 25–26, 2024.

On May 25 last year, thousands of children from 77 countries around the world met with the Argentine pope at Rome’s Olympic Stadium. Together, they heard various testimonies and the youngest children also had the opportunity to ask the Holy Father questions.

In November 2024, Francis established the Pontifical Committee for World Children’s Day and appointed as its president Father Enzo Fortunato, who is also director of communications for St. Peter’s Basilica and head of the press office of St. Francis of Assisi Basilica.

The next World Children’s Day will be celebrated in Rome in September 2026.

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