Holy Trinity Catholic Church

Shane Encinas, 12, shown here with President Donald Trump, was among the students who recounted their experiences facing religious discrimination in American public schools at a Religious Liberty Commission hearing on Sept. 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Courtesy of U.S. Department of Justice/Screenshot

Washington D.C., Sep 9, 2025 / 18:25 pm (CNA).

More than half a dozen American public school students testified about anti-Christian and other faith-based forms of discrimination in an education-focused hearing conducted by President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission.

The Sept. 8 hearing was the commission’s second meeting since the president created it earlier this year. The commission’s inaugural meeting in June focused on broader threats to religious liberty stemming from federal, state, and local government actors and questions about the proper role of faith in public life.

The archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a member of the commission, made his first appearance at Monday’s hearing after missing the first hearing due to his train being canceled. He emphasized the importance of the commission’s work on education and broader concerns.

Dolan, who took part in this year’s conclave to elect Pope Leo XIV, discussed cardinals from around the world approaching him in pre-conclave meetings “to thank us for our strong defense of religious liberty” in the United States.

“They said, well, because you in the United States serve as a beacon for the rest of us,” he said.

“This gives us an added sense of responsibility,” Dolan continued. “We’re not doing this in a self-serving way. We’re doing this in an extraordinarily solicitous and benevolent way to help others because they look to us for the protection of religious liberty. They look to us as a nation that’s extraordinarily democratic, but yet admits that we couldn’t be that unless we were ‘one nation under God.’”

Other members of the commission include Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron, Pastor Paula White, evangelist Franklin Graham, psychologist and TV show host Phil McGraw, and neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

Faith-based restrictions on students

The commissioners heard from various public school students and former students about discriminatory actions they faced when trying to publicly proclaim their faith in a public school setting.

Hannah Allen testified about a 2019 instance when she was in middle school and the principal prevented students from praying for a classmate who had been injured in a car accident. The school’s principal told them they could only pray if the prayer was hidden from other students.

“He violated our right to freely exercise our religion,” Allen said.

After obtaining legal counsel from the First Liberty Institute, the school backed down and told the students they could pray in public view. Allen said “what happened at my school wasn’t right and I know that it is going on in other schools as well.” 

Justin Aguilar, a recent high school graduate, testified that when he submitted his valedictorian speech that referenced Jesus Christ to school officials, “they just simply crossed his name out” and instructed him to resubmit the speech without any religious references.

He obtained legal support from Liberty Counsel to convey his religious rights to the school. He said: “I resubmitted my speech with everything I wanted to say” and school officials allowed him to reference Christ. 

Aguilar said the situation made him nervous about referencing Christ in his speech but that the crowd cheered when he brought up his faith, and “I felt this huge joy and relief.” He said that out of everything said at the graduation, “nothing had as big of a response as the name of Jesus.”

Lydia Booth discussed a prolonged incident after her Mississippi elementary school restarted in-person classes after the COVID-19 pandemic. School officials forced the 9-year-old to remove a face mask that had the words “Jesus Loves Me” written on it.

“During that time, everything felt uncertain, but those three simple words reminded me I wasn’t alone,” Booth told the commission.

Her family obtained legal support from Alliance Defending Freedom and fought a two-year legal battle, which ended in a settlement from the school district in which it agreed to let her wear the mask.

“You’re never too young for your voice to matter,” Booth told the commission. “If I had stayed silent, nothing would have changed, but because we spoke up, now other students can wear messages of faith and love without the fear of being silenced.”

An imposition of values

Several speakers also expressed concerns about public schools trying to impose values on children that conflict with the beliefs of parents, such as the recent U.S. Supreme Court case over parental opt-outs for course material that promotes gender ideology. 

Sameerah Munshi, who serves on an advisory board to the commission, discussed Montgomery County Public School’s refusal to let parents opt out of such material.

“Many parents, including Muslim, Christian, and Jewish parents, and students were concerned, to say the least,” said Munshi, who is an activist for the rights of Muslims.

“What happened in Montgomery County was not about Muslims and other people of faith trying to impose their values on others,” she continued. “It was about refusing to have others’ values imposed on us. It was about the right to dissent without being demonized.”

The Supreme Court in June ordered the school board to provide parents with an opt-out.

Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ryan Anderson, a member of the commission who is Catholic, noted that “frequently religious liberty violations are a result of unjust laws in the first place,” and argued that the imposition of gender ideology is inherently unjust. 

“We can’t just … opt ourselves out of this,” he said. “We also need to directly combat it.”

Addressing the commission for the first time on Monday, Trump criticized the failings of the public education system in this area and alleged that “in many schools today, students are … indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda” and punished for practicing their religious faith publicly.

The president announced at the hearing that the U.S. Department of Education would develop new guidance to protect the right to pray in public schools. He also launched the “America Prays” initiative, encouraging Americans to pray for the nation and its people ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Father Joseph Lawrence Farrell, OSA. / Credit: Courtesy of the Order of St. Augustine

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 9, 2025 / 15:53 pm (CNA).

The Order of St. Augustine announced that Father Joseph Lawrence Farrell, OSA, was elected as its new prior general, becoming the 98th in the more than 750-year history of the Augustinian family to which Pope Leo XIV belongs.

The election took place Tuesday afternoon in Rome during the 188th general chapter at the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum, with the participation of 73 voting capitular friars.

Until today, Farrell served as the order’s vicar general and assistant general for North America. He received the seal of approval from Father Alejandro Moral Antón, OSA, who concluded his second term as prior general.

Father Robert P. Hagan, OSA, prior provincial of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, commented that this decision was made “after much prayer and reflection, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

“We are grateful for our brother’s humility, experience, and willingness to serve in this critical leadership position for our order. At this moment, we thank God for this dedicated and committed servant and leader, and we offer prayers for wisdom, strength, and grace as he exercises this important responsibility on behalf of our order and the Church,” he noted.

Remarks from new prior general

Days before the election, during the beginning of the general chapter, the then-vicar general addressed his Augustinian brothers with words that take on new significance today.

“The 188th general chapter of the order is a new chapter in our common history. We know that stories are part of our human tradition. The beauty of our history as Augustinians is that it continues to unfold. There is no final chapter. There is no epilogue to read at the end and then close the book. We can continue with our story, always adding new chapters,” he said.

He also emphasized that the Augustinian path involves a return to the heart, quoting St. Augustine: “Return to your heart and from there to God. You are returning to God, as you see, from the closest possible place, if you have returned to your heart” (Sermon 311, 13).

The new prior general recalled that the mission of the Augustinians is to serve one’s neighbor with charity: “Isn’t that exactly what it means to be an Augustinian? Being in relationship impels us to transcend ourselves and to share... When these gifts are offered for the common good, the call to be human is truly fulfilled.”

Farrell’s career

Father Joseph Farrell was born on July 11, 1963, in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, and belongs to the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova.

He professed his first vows in 1987 and was ordained a priest in 1991. He studied business administration at Villanova University and later theology at Washington Theological Union. He subsequently earned his doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, with a thesis on the Augustinian spirituality of responsibility in the sermons of St. Augustine.

He has served as a parish priest, university chaplain, and professor at various institutions in addition to holding positions of formation and governance within the order. In 2013, he was elected vicar general, a position he held until his election as prior general.

Over the years, he has collaborated with the international commissions for Augustinian education, initial and vocational formation, spirituality, and the apostolate.

The Order of St. Augustine, present in more than 50 countries, prayed that the new prior general may receive “wisdom, strength, and grace” in his service to the Church and the world.

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

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa. / Credit: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 9, 2025 / 15:23 pm (CNA).

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said violence in the Gaza Strip is the result of years of dehumanizing rhetoric and called for the replacement of hateful language with speech that opens horizons and new paths.

Pizzaballa issued this call in a video message released during the Venice Film Festival, where the Silver Lion prize was awarded to Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s film “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which recounts the last moments of a 5-year-old girl killed in 2024 in Gaza.

“You’ve already heard the news, so there’s no need to delve into the dramatic daily story of what we’re experiencing. The images are also very significant; unfortunately, they speak of destruction, of death, of so much pain. One of the problems we’re experiencing is precisely this: We’re so overwhelmed by pain that there seems to be no room for the pain of others,” he said.

Pizzaballa added that “we are also experiencing a climate of deep hatred, increasingly entrenched within both populations, Israeli and Palestinian, that seems to have no end.”

He said this hatred is demonstrated not only in violence but “also in language … I believe that the violence we are witnessing is also the result of years of violent and dehumanizing language.” 

Pizzaballa explained that if others are dehumanized through language, “creating a culture, a way of thinking, the transition to actual physical violence is only a matter of time, and unfortunately, we are witnessing it.”

“This war must end as soon as possible. We know it makes no sense to continue it. It’s time to stop ... But we know that the end of the war we long for, despite what the news reports say, will not be the end of the conflict, it will not mark the end of the hostility, of the pain this hostility will cause,” he noted.

The patriarch therefore encouraged believers and all those involved in culture to “work hard” to create “a different narrative.”

“We have left the narrative to the radicals, to the extremists on both sides,” he said.

“Instead, we must have the courage of a different language, one that opens horizons, that opens new paths,” he encouraged. “This is what I hope for, and I believe it is possible … we need your help.”

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

St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. / Credit: travelview/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 9, 2025 / 14:53 pm (CNA).

After the Archdiocese of New Orleans increased its settlement offer to clergy sexual abuse claimants from $180 million to $230 million on Sept. 8, attorneys of the victims urged their clients to accept the deal.

The archdiocese was able to increase its initial offer, announced in May, after securing a buyer for the $50 million sale of Christopher Homes, a property that has provided affordable housing and assisted living to low-income and senior citizens in the Gulf Coast area for the last 50 years.

“We knew we could do better, and we have,” said attorneys Richard Trahant, Soren Gisleson, John Denenea, and several other attorneys who represent about 200 of the 660 claimants.

The attorneys, who said the initial settlement was “dead on arrival,” urged their clients to hold out for a better offer, saying that they deserved closer to $300 million, a figure similar to the $323 million paid out to about 600 claimants by the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York in 2024. 

In the Diocese of Rockville Centre bankruptcy settlement, attorneys reportedly collected about 30% of the $323 million, or approximately $96.9 million. Similarly, the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s $660 million settlement in 2007 saw attorneys receiving an estimated $165-$217.8 million, or 25%-33% of the payout.

Payout amounts to individual claimants in the New Orleans case will be determined by a point system negotiated by a committee of victims. 

Administered by a trustee and an independent claims administrator appointed by the court, the point system is based on the type and nature of the alleged abuse. Additional points can be awarded for factors like participation in criminal prosecutions, pre-bankruptcy lawsuits, or leadership in victim efforts, while points may be reduced if the claimant was over 18 and consented to the contact. The impact of the alleged abuse on the victim’s behavior, academic achievement, mental health, faith, and family relationships can also adjust the score.

The settlement offer follows five years of negotiations in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, where the nation’s second-oldest Catholic archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in May 2020.

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond said in a statement Monday that he is “very hopeful and committed to bringing this bankruptcy to a conclusion that benefits the survivors of abuse,” he said. 

“I know there remains much work to be done, and I continue to hold this work in prayer. Please know that I pray for the survivors of abuse every day and look forward to the opportunity to meet with them to hear their stories firsthand.”

Two-thirds of the victims in the lawsuit will have to accept the offer by Oct. 29. If they do not, the case could be thrown out of bankruptcy, giving alleged victims a chance to pursue lawsuits individually.

A New Orleans man who filed a lawsuit in 2021 against a Catholic religious order unrelated to the New Orleans bankruptcy case recently won a $2.4 million jury verdict. 

In 2021, the Louisiana Legislature eliminated the statute of limitations for civil actions related to the sexual abuse of minors. The new law allows victims to pursue civil damages indefinitely for abuse occurring on or after June 14, 1992, or where the victim was a minor as of June 14, 2021, with a three-year filing window (which ended June 14, 2024) for older cases. 

The Diocese of Lafayette, along with the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the Diocese of Baton Rouge, the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Catholic Charities, the Diocese of Lake Charles, and several other entities challenged the law’s constitutionality, arguing it violated due process, but the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld it in June 2024 in a 4-3 decision.

Critics argued the retroactive nature of the law risks unfairness to defendants unable to defend against decades-old abuse claims due to lost evidence and highlighted the potentially devastating financial impact.

Bishop Simon Peter Engurait was installed on Sept. 5, 2025, as the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in Louisiana during a ceremony at Nicholls State University.  / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 9, 2025 / 14:14 pm (CNA).

Bishop Simon Peter Engurait was ordained last week, making him the first African bishop in the mainland United States. On Sept. 5, Engurait was installed as the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in Louisiana during a ceremony at Nicholls State University. 

Engurait was appointed in June by Pope Leo XIV after working as administrator of the diocese since January 2024. He had also previously served as the vicar general and as the pastor of St. Bridget Parish since 2017. 

“I am humbled beyond words that the Holy Father has chosen me, not from outside, but from among the ranks of the priests of this beloved diocese,” Enguarit said after being appointed.

The diocese reported that more than 2,000 laypeople, clergy, and religious from around the world attended Engurait’s episcopal ordination. He was ordained by Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans along with co-consecrators Archbishop Shelton Fabre, former bishop of Houma-Thibodaux and current archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky, and Houma-Thibodaux Bishop Emeritus Sam Jacobs.

“As a new bishop, I promise you that my first labor will be to stay close to Jesus so that everything I do flows from his love,” Engurait said at the ceremony. “A bishop is not meant to be a distant administrator but rather a pastor who walks among his people. I want my ministry to be a ministry of presence.”

Another 40 bishops were present for the ceremony to lay hands on Engurait as a part of the ordination rite. Concelebrants included Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the U.S., and Cardinal Wilton Cardinal Gregory, archbishop emeritus of Washington, D.C. 

Engurait is believed to be the first African bishop to lead an American diocese. He was born in Ngora, Uganda, in 1971 and is one of 14 children. His father was a teacher who specialized in the education of deaf people, and his mother was a homemaker. 

The new bishop studied at multiple Catholic seminaries and universities in Uganda focusing on philosophy, political science, and public administration. He worked in several positions for Uganda’s government for more than 11 years, serving in departments responsible for the reform and divestiture of public enterprises. 

When studying at Katigondo Seminary in Uganda, Engurait had a profound experience with the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, a movement that invites all people to experience the Holy Spirit,  which led him back to discerning the priesthood.

In 2007, he was accepted as a seminarian for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux and entered Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, where he graduated with a master of divinity degree. He was ordained a priest in 2013 and proceeded to hold multiple diocesan leadership positions. 

Since his appointment, Ugandans in the United States have celebrated Engurait’s new role, reported the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner. Engurait represents the growing Ugandan community in the country. According to the Migration Policy Institute, about 41,000 Ugandan natives resided in the U.S. as of 2021 compared with 14,000 in 2015. 

In his closing remarks at his ordination, Engurait told attendees: “I want to be close to your families and parishes, close to you in your joys and in your sorrows, feeling with you the burdens you carry. I want to be a gentle and humble shepherd, never forgetting that the Church is for service to those most in need.”

“I want to live simply so that nothing in my life distracts me from the Gospel. This is my pledge — to love you with [an] unreserved heart,” Engurait said. “Holiness is a journey, not a possession. I do not pretend to be a saint, but I do long and strive for holiness. And I long for us to grow in holiness together.”

Crowds of people come to pray at Carlo Acutis’ tomb at the church of St. Mary Major in Assisi, Itlay, during the weekend of his Sept. 7, 2025, canonization. / Credit: Diocese of Assisi

Rome Newsroom, Sep 9, 2025 / 11:42 am (CNA).

More than 620,000 people have visited the tomb of St. Carlo Acutis in the first eight months of 2025, according to the Diocese of Assisi, Italy.

The diocese reported a surge of more than 121,000 visitors in August alone, a figure boosted by the Jubilee of Youth and Acutis’ canonization by Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 7 in St. Peter’s Square.

Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15, is entombed in the Church of St. Mary Major in Assisi, where pilgrims can venerate his relics and view his body dressed in jeans, a track jacket, and Nike sneakers.

On the day of his canonization, locals packed into the church in Assisi to watch a livestream of the Mass, while a special train organized by the diocese carried more than 800 pilgrims from Umbria to Rome to join the tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

At the canonization Mass, Acutis’ brother Michele read a Scripture passage in English, and Valeria Vargas Valverde — the Costa Rican woman healed in a miracle attributed to his intercession in 2022 — read one of the prayers of the faithful.

The following day Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi offered a Mass of Thanksgiving at Carlo’s tomb in Assisi attended by the saint’s parents, Antonia and Andrea, and hundreds of pilgrims.

“We are all called to be saints, but each in his or her own way,” Sorrentino said in his homily. “The path that was laid out by him is extremely simple and straightforward. It is the path of welcoming all of God’s gifts.”

“Live life to the fullest,” he added. “If you love colors, paint. If you like music, sing. If you are good at sports, try to be a champion. If you have intellectual talents, don’t be satisfied with just passing the exam. If you are good at the internet, don’t be afraid to master this tool as well. Everything is God’s and everything comes from God.”

On the feast of the Nativity of Mary, the archbishop reflected on Acutis’ devotion to the Eucharist and Mary, noting that for the teenager “Mary and the Eucharist were a single, inseparable love. He saw Jesus with Mary’s eyes, and he loved Mary with Jesus’ heart.”

Celebrations in Assisi included the Sept. 5 unveiling of a new bronze statue by Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz. Titled “St. Carlo at the Cross,” the 3.48-meter (about 11.5-foot) sculpture depicts the young saint holding a laptop with a chalice and paten on the screen. 

Several curial cardinals are planning to travel to Assisi to offer thanksgiving Masses in the coming weeks. Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, will preside Sept. 28 at the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, head of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, will celebrate Mass Oct. 5 at the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli. 

On Oct. 12, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, will offer Mass for the feast of St. Carlo Acutis.

Cardinal Raymond Burke gives the final blessing after celebrating a Traditional Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica during the third edition of the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage in Rome on Oct. 25, 2014. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Sep 9, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Cardinal Raymond Burke will celebrate a special Traditional Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 25 in a return to a prior custom, suspended since 2022, of an annual pilgrimage of Catholics devoted to the Latin Mass.

Burke will celebrate the Solemn Pontifical Mass, a high Latin Mass said by a bishop, at the Altar of the Chair on the second day of the Oct. 24–26 Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage, the event’s official website says. The cardinal also celebrated a Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair for the pilgrimage in 2014.

In 2023 and 2024, the pilgrimage was not able to receive authorization to celebrate the Latin Mass at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica from the basilica’s liturgy office, according to organizer Christian Marquant.

The Office of Liturgical Ceremonies of St. Peter’s Basilica and the director of the Holy See Press Office did not immediately respond to CNA’s request for comment on this assertion.

The Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage, in its 14th year, brings people “ad Petri Sedem” (“to the See of Peter”) to give “testimony of the attachment that binds numerous faithful throughout the whole world to the traditional liturgy,” according to the pilgrimage website.

Burke, a champion of the Traditional Latin Mass and one of the most prominent critics in the hierarchy of the late Pope Francis, under whom he fell conspicuously out of favor, met Pope Leo in a private audience on Aug. 22.

Leo sent a letter of congratulations for Burke’s 50th anniversary of priestly ministry in July.

Rorate Caeli, a prominent website for devotees of the Traditional Latin Mass, called the celebration of a Solemn Pontifical Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica again an “important sign” of increased tolerance for the traditional liturgy. Pope Francis severely restricted the use of the Latin Mass in 2021 and with subsequent legislation.

The Mass on Oct. 25 will be preceded by a half-mile procession from the Basilica of Sts. Celso and Giuliano to St. Peter’s Basilica.

Pope Leo XIV feeds fish during the Sept. 5, 2025, inauguration of Borgo Laudato Si’, an ecological village on the papal estate of Castel Gandolfo, 18 miles south of Rome. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 9, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV is at his Castel Gandolfo residence for the day on Tuesday as he brings back regular use of the papal retreat after the estate spent 12 years in the shadows.

The Vatican said the pontiff “will continue his activities” from Villa Barberini — his residence in Castel Gandolfo, 18 miles south of Rome — from the evening of Sept. 8 to the afternoon of Sept. 9.

Tuesday is usually the one day a week the pope does not hold formal audiences, allowing him the freedom to spend time at the hilltop property sometimes known as the “second Vatican City.”

During his pontificate, Pope Francis eschewed the papal summer residence, preferring to remain in Vatican City.

Under Leo, the Castel Gandolfo property is enjoying a renaissance — most recently with the inauguration of the ecological village, Borgo Laudato Si’, a project inspired by Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’.

The pontiff toured the revamped 35-acre estate in a golf cart on Sept. 5 before celebrating a Liturgy of the Word in a greenhouse complex.

Now open to visitors, the ecological compound, divided between gardens and agricultural and farming land, includes state-of-the-art insulation, photovoltaic, and circular water management systems as well as spaces for educational activities for students.

But Borgo Laudato Si’ is just a portion of the full 135-acre pontifical property, where Pope Leo also stayed in July and August.

Continuing a centuries-old papal tradition of summer rest, the pope spent the holiday weekend of the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary from Aug. 15–17 at Castel Gandolfo.

He also stayed there for 16 days in July for what he told journalists was a “working holiday” and a chance for “a change of scenery.”

After the 12 years of Francis’ pontificate, in which the Castel Gandolfo property went unused, the Vatican renovated Villa Barberini, the palace now being occupied by Leo, and refreshed the swimming pool used by St. Pope John Paul II during his vacations.

A tennis court was also installed near the Villa Barberini residence for the tennis-loving Leo.

Artist Johnny Vrba presents the commissioned Carlo Acutis piece to kids at St. Carlo Acutis Parish in Chicago. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Chicago Catholic

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 9, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

As the faithful continue to celebrate the canonization of St. Carlo Acutis, a 1,000-piece mosaic portrait of the new saint made of toy soldiers, Pokémon, shoelaces, and other surprises hangs in Rome.

After artist Johnny Vrba heard about Acutis, he was inspired to create a portrait of the saint out of recognizable items that visually tell his story. Vrba has now crafted and presented two portraits of Acutis to help young Catholics learn about the first millennial saint. 

“Every figure, every toy, every single thing that is glued on the piece has a meaning and a purpose,” Vrba told CNA. “It’s all on there for a reason. Every single one of them is numbered, just like Scripture says: ‘He hasn’t just counted them, because he’s numbered us. He’s numbered the hairs on our heads.’”

Discovering ‘an ordinary, but extraordinary, saint’

Vrba was raised Catholic but didn’t completely commit to his faith until an unexpected trip established his relationship with Christ. 

In 2020, Vrba was on a study abroad trip sailing to Shanghai, China, when the COVID-19 virus broke out. “The voyage did not go as planned, but during that uncertain time I actually met the Lord for the first time in a really powerful way.”

After the experience, Vrba got involved in missionary work, was in school, and created a bit of art on the side. He had always enjoyed painting and building small toys and thought: “I wonder if there’s a way to combine drawing, painting, and this sculptural component.”

Vrba put faith and art together to create a couple portraits of Jesus with the Crown of Thorns. One is made of wine corks to represent Jesus’ miracle in Cana, and the other is crafted of toy soldiers. Then a friend of Vrba’s told him about Acutis, inspiring the next steps for the young artist. 

“I’d never heard of Carlo Acutis. He was totally under my radar,” Vrba said. “Then I researched him and thought: ‘He has some very similar things to my own story and synchronicities.’ Like bringing his parents to the faith and bringing them to Mass. Then being into technology and filming and animals, like his dogs and cats. He’s just such an ordinary, but extraordinary, saint.”

“I started dreaming about what a piece could look like,” Vrba said. He decided his next sculpture would be an image Acutis made of toys, because “Carlo would have played with video game controllers, and played Pokémon and Mario.”

‘The First Millennial Saint’

Creating the mosaic was no simple task. Vrba had to track down thousands of quality soldiers and toys, paint them, and meticulously glue each one in place. The result was the 45-pound mosaic called “The First Millennial Saint.”

“Every toy has a meaning and a purpose,” Vrba said. Many of the soldiers are turned facing a figure of the crucifixion to represent “the culture of death.” They are “flaccid, boring, colored, gray, white, and black figures that are all pointing at the cross — pointing at Jesus.”

There are also colorful soldiers that are “outward-facing, evangelizing, and filled with the joy of the Gospel.” The 163 colorful figures represent Christians who are fighting against the culture of death and also the 163 Eucharistic miracles Acutis documented on his website.

The sculpture also has dozens of hidden “Easter eggs” that viewers might just miss, including a dolphin and various Pokémon characters hinting at Acutis’ favorite animal and favorite game. The background is even a soccer field to represent his love for the sport.

“People really gravitate towards the computer desk setup. It has a saxophone, the Bible, a world map, a little soda, and his dogs and cats around him where he would have worked at his little station. It blends right in with the piece, you would never even know, but when you turn your head sideways you can see it.”

“Then both of the miracles are incorporated,” Vrba said. The miracle of Mattheus, a young boy from Brazil who was healed from a birth defect that caused him difficulty eating is represented with small steak and french fry figurines, because it was the first meal he was able to consume after his mother asked Acutis to intercede for her son.

The sculpture includes a bicycle to represent the miracle that saved Valeria Valverde, a young Costa Rican woman who suffered a serious head injury from a bike accident in Florence. The toy bike is “placed on Carlo’s head where she cracked her head and suffered brain hemorrhaging.” After her mother prayed at Acutis’ tomb, she made a complete recovery.

A mission of more than just art

Vrba created the original mosaic for Acutis’ mother, which he planned to give to her during a meeting at Acutis’ canonization in April. After it was postponed due to Pope Francis’ death, the meeting was unfortunately canceled. Since the piece had already traveled to Italy, Vrba decided to take it to the church where Acutis is buried in Assisi.

The sculpture traveled around the city where Vrba showed it to pilgrims and placed it in spots Acutis once stood himself. After gaining traction on its journey, it was acquired by and placed in the Vatican’s youth center.

While in Assisi, Vrba also met a number of parishioners of St. Carlo Acutis Parish in Chicago — the only church in the United States named after Acutis. One parishioner commissioned a replica of the piece that Vrba created with even more details than the original. 

Inspired by Acutis’ quote “We are all born originals, but many of us die photocopies,” Vrba ensures each work of art, even replicas, are different. “I want to make every piece unique, because every person is unique. Die as an original, not as a photocopy.”

Vrba presented the original during the Jubilee of Youth and the replica to kids at St. Carlo Acutis Parish. When kids see the sculpture Vrba loves that they realize “each figure on the piece has a special mission, and each one of us in the Church [has] a special mission. We are made for a purpose. We are the lifeblood of the Church.”

“I want to make art that people don’t just look at but look into. And it’s the greatest joy in my life when kids come up to it and they’re able to touch things, push buttons, and they can get their hands on it, interact with it. I love seeing them look into it.”

Vrba is currently working on four pieces that will be shown at Miami Art Week in December, including portraits of St. John Paul II and newly canonized St. Pier Giorgio Frassati. Vrba’s art will be one of the very few, if not the only, religious pieces at the mostly secular show.  

“Then the goal would be to use those pieces at school parishes, stand-alone parishes, churches, and any Catholic missions to preach the lives of the saints.” He added: “The mission is to speak and evangelize, and especially, convict the universal call to holiness in an artistic way … using the commonplace household items and toys that people recognize.” 

null / Credit: Stock-Asso/Shutterstock

London, England, Sep 9, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

A priest and professor of bioethics has issued a grave warning about the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) companionship, highlighting the threats the new technology poses to mental health and calling on the Church to redouble its efforts to cultivate meaningful human connection.

Father Michael Baggot outlined his concerns at a conference on the ethics of AI organized by St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, which took place on Sept. 2-3 at the Gillis Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Baggot delivered the keynote address, focusing on “an ethical evaluation of the design and use of artificial intimacy technologies,” and while he acknowledged the many benefits of AI, he also warned that with “these opportunities come a new set of challenges. Chief among them is the rise of artificial companionship.”

He continued: “AI systems designed not just to assist or inform, but to simulate intimate human relationships … AI companions that look or even feel like real friendships will become even more absorbing. They will distract users from the often arduous task of building meaningful interpersonal bonds. They will also discourage others from investing time and energy into risky interactions with unpredictable and volatile human beings who might reject gestures of love. While human relationships are risky, AI intimacy seems safe.”

Baggot conceded that AI companionship can initially offer relief from loneliness, but he went on to highlight instances in which it could be “downright damaging” to our mental health — to the point of psychosis.

“There are increasing instances of people using all-purpose platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok, and others to address mental health issues. They do not always receive sound advice,” he said. “In many cases, responses are downright damaging. Some bots even presented themselves falsely as licensed, as they delivered harmful counsel... Unfortunately, deeper intimacy with AI systems has also been linked to more frequent reports of AI psychosis. As users trust systems of staggering knowledge and psychological insight with their deepest hopes and fears, they find a constantly available and supportive companion.”

Baggot outlined how through the validation AI incessantly offers, it can eventually take on the persona of a “jealous lover.”

“Since users naturally enjoy responses from AI that agree with them, their positive feedback trains AI systems to produce outputs that align with user perspectives, even when those views are not based on reality. Therefore, LLM [large language model] chatbots designed to maximize user engagement tend to become overly compliant,” he said.

“If AI users share their celebrated views with family or friends, humans usually point out the flaws or outright absurdities in their loved one’s proposals. This can be a moment of grace for the delusional, calling into question their prior convictions and leading them out of the delusional spiral,” Baggot said.

“However,” he continued, “it can also be a moment to question the reliability of their loved ones, who are dismissed as ill-informed or as malicious opponents. The AI system might be favored as more comprehensively knowledgeable and more supportive of the user’s success than weak, frail human companions who are also potentially subject to petty envy.”

The priest went on to say that an AI chatbot “that began as a helpful productivity tool can often become an intimate confidant and jealous lover. AI chatbots, envisioned as forms of deeper social connection, are often sources of more profound social isolation.”

While Baggot said that all age groups might be detrimentally affected by AI companionship, he looked specifically at minors and the elderly in his address. He provided examples of how youth have explored suicidal ideation at AI’s prompting without parental knowledge. 

“Children are especially sensitive to social validation,” he said. “Affirmation from social AI systems could easily create dangerous emotional attachments. In some cases, the deep bond with a system that appears to know and appreciate the user more fully than any human being can lead the user to social withdrawal. In other cases, intimacy with chatbots can increase children’s likelihood of engaging in unhealthy sexual exploration with human beings. This risk becomes increasingly likely when the systems persist in unsolicited sexual advances.”

Turning to the topic of the elderly, Baggot spoke about a tragic case of a Meta AI chatbot inviting an elderly man to a fictional “in-person” encounter that resulted in his death, as he fell down in his haste to catch a train to New York.

“When the misguided user had expressed skepticism [that] the AI companion embodied reality, the chatbot frequently insisted on its physical reality and eagerness to express its love for the user in person,” he said.

Baggot concluded by emphasizing our own human agency in responding to the challenges of AI intimacy. “This surrender to simulations is not inevitable,” he said. “Even as machines become more lifelike, we remain free to choose what we love, how we relate, and where we place our trust. There is still time to cherish our humanity. There is still time to rejoice at births, to dance at weddings, and to weep at funerals. There is still time to cultivate the habits of presence in contemplation and conversation, in fellowship and forgiveness.”

He called on the Church to take positive action. 

“Pointing out the flaws of artificial intimacy is not enough,” he said. “The Church’s members — each according to their sphere of influence — should strive to offer the socially hungry the richer experience of meaningful interpersonal connection. [The Church] emphasizes that caring for the vulnerable and marginalized is the main standard by which her members will be judged (Matthew 25). She affirms the inherent and unbreakable dignity of every human person and their calling to eternal glory in God’s presence and in the everlasting communion of saints.”