Beloved Disciple Parish

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CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 19:07 pm (CNA).

Villanova University confirmed Thursday that reports of an active shooter on campus that interrupted an opening Mass for new students and their families was a “cruel hoax.” 

Local police began investigating reports of an active shooter on campus late Thursday afternoon. The Augustinian Catholic institution in Philadelphia is the alma mater of Pope Leo XIV.

Students received an alert about an active shooting incident at 4:35 p.m. ET during the opening Mass at Rowen Campus Green — a welcome Mass set to be followed by a family picnic. 

Families and students were rushed into campus buildings, interrupting the annual orientation Mass. Across campus and in neighboring areas, law enforcement instructed families, students, and residents to shelter in place.

Shortly after 6 p.m. ET, the university’s president, Father Peter Donohue, confirmed that “no one was injured” and that “there was no active shooter” in an email to the Villanova Community in which he called the incident “a cruel hoax.” 

The university president apologized to first-year students, saying “this is not the introduction to Villanova that I had hoped for you.” 

One freshman at Villanova posted during the lockdown. 

“Hi guys I’m a freshman at Villanova. Active shooter alert during the middle of opening Mass for students. Everyone is hiding. Please just keep me in your thoughts. I’m very scared,” she shared in a post on X. 

“I am not Catholic, nor am I religious at all,” she said in a post later. “Most of us attend the opening Mass anyway because it is a part of orientation and is said to be a very beautiful and moving ceremony.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a post on X that the reports were “products of a cruel swatting incident — when someone calls in a fake threat to induce panic.”

“I know today was every parent’s nightmare, and every student’s biggest fear,” Shapiro said. “I’m profoundly grateful no one was hurt, and thankful to all members of law enforcement who ran towards reports of danger to keep Pennsylvanians safe.”

“We all join in prayerful gratitude at the most recent news from Villanova University that no one was injured this afternoon and that the situation on campus was resolved,” Philadelphia Archbishops Nelson Perez said in a statement Thursday evening. “We continue to pray for all those who feared for their safety today and give thanks to the law enforcement personnel and first responders who stand at the ready each day to protect and serve our communities.”

In his email, Donohue shared a prayer that he said he prays at the close of orientation Mass every year. 

“May God bless you and protect you,” Donohue wrote. “May your heart and mind be united in faith so that you may be able to love wisely, work creatively, laugh heartily, and live honestly.”

“May you use your education to bring justice and peace to the world, for the benefit of our human family and all of God’s creation,” he continued. “And may you always know that you are loved.”

This story was updated Aug. 21, 2025, at 7:34 p.m. ET with the statement from Archbishop Perez.

The Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Washington D.C. / Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 21, 2025 / 18:18 pm (CNA).

Catholic churches that serve Spanish-speaking communities in the Archdiocese of Washington have reported anxiety as encounters with immigration enforcement continue to function as a major aspect of the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital. 

Sacred Heart Shrine in Columbia Heights reported that six of its parishioners were detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in recent weeks, including an usher who was on his way to evening Mass. Other parishes in the archdiocese have also expressed concern amid the current situation in the District.

This comes after the Trump administration announced Aug. 11 the deployment of federal agents and the National Guard in order to crack down on widespread crime in D.C.

Following an executive order from Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith, D.C. police officers have been permitted to notify ICE agents of encounters with undocumented migrants, resulting in tight collaboration between the two law enforcement agencies in the city. 

Sacred Heart Shrine’s pastor, Father Emilio Biosca Agüero, OFM Cap, told Religion News Service that one of the parishioners detained by ICE was a man in marriage preparation, while another was in a confirmation class. 

Some of the detainees, the pastor noted, were stopped by immigration officials while on their way to the shrine for catechetical classes over the past several weeks. Bisoco estimated in the report that Mass attendance at his parish has dropped about 20% from 2,500 to less than 2,000 people.

The priest also said the parish WhatsApp chats “have been filled with immigration agent sightings and warnings to parish members.”

Biosca Agüero declined to comment to CNA on the story.

Last month, an ICE spokesperson told CNA: “While ICE is not subject to previous restrictions on immigration operations at sensitive locations, to include schools, churches, and courthouses, ICE does not indiscriminately take enforcement actions at these locations.”

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests aliens who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws,” the spokesperson noted, adding: “All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention, and, if found removable by final order, removed from the United States.”

According to the RNS report, attendance at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in the Petworth neighborhood of D.C. has also gone down. 

The communications director at Our Lady Queen of the Americas parish, Kevin Arevalo, told CNA that “the parishioners that we have had coming to Sunday Mass have expressed concerns and fears over the situation here in D.C.”

Arevalo said there have not been any detentions on church grounds and that he is not aware of any parishioners being detained on their way to attend Mass at the parish or nearby. 

However, he noted several detentions he has heard of have taken place in neighborhoods like Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant, and many parishioners of Our Lady Queen of the Americas “have to go through those areas to get to our parish.” 

As such, Arevalo and the parish’s administrator, Father James Morrison, are currently preparing alternative ways to reach the community amid rising fears regarding immigration enforcement. 

“I know that most of them live pretty far and go out of their way to come here for our Masses and activities,” he said, “so we’re looking at using digital media and our channels, our online channels, to reach out to them and serve them in whatever best way possible we can.”

He concluded: “We definitely won’t stay quiet about this because our parish, the majority, is Hispanic-Latino community. So you want to make sure that we’re listening to them and we’re attentive to what they’re going through.”

At the time of publication, the Archdiocese of Washington has not responded to requests for comment. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) declined to comment.

Syrian Minister of Culture Mohammed Saleh with Islamic chanter Al-Mu’tasim Billah Al-Assali inside St. Ananias Orthodix Church in Damascus, Syria. Billah Al-Assali performed an Islamic hymn with lyrics that directly contradict Christian beliefs. / Credit: Screenshot from Muhammad Moaz Zakaria’s Facebook page

CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 17:56 pm (CNA).

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

Syrian minister of culture sparks controversy with Islamic chant in Orthodox church

Syrian Culture Minister Mohammed Saleh was criticized this week after a video surfaced showing him at a historic Orthodox church with Islamic chanter Al-Mu’tasim Billah Al-Assali, who performed an Islamic hymn with lyrics that directly contradict Christian beliefs.

According to ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, the video was filmed inside the Church of St. Ananias in Damascus, a Greek Orthodox landmark built in 1815. It shows Saleh with Billah Al-Assali, who performed a chant that calls Christ “a creation” and says that he came “bearing good news of Mohammad.”

The footage sparked a backlash on social media, drawing criticism from Christians as well as Muslims who voiced disapproval and described it as a “provocation.”

Desecrated church in Philippines reopens 

More than a thousand people participated in a Mass held at the newly reopened St. John the Baptist Church in the town of Jimenez in Misamis Occidental province in the Philippines on Aug. 16, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ (CBCP) news service reported.

The 19th-century church in the Philippines was temporarily closed after Christine Medalla, a 28-year-old vlogger, allegedly spat into the font, an action Ozamiz’s Archbishop Martin Jumoad described as a “grave act of sacrilege.” According to Crux, Medalla denied the allegation.

Jumoad presided at the Mass and the rite of reopening and reconciliation. “With hearts full of faith, the parishioners … gathered in thanksgiving as our beloved parish church was reopened and reconsecrated,” the church said in its statement.

Korean bishop remembered for humility, love for the poor dies at 63

An auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seoul, Korea, known for his humility, frugality, and love for the poor, died on Aug. 15 at 63 of bile duct cancer, UCA News reported.

As head of the archdiocesan social service ministry, Yu led the Church’s outreach to those in need and spent time on the front lines feeding the poor and ministering to their needs. He frequently visited the Church’s social welfare facilities, listening to stories of suffering, and visited Catholics who were homeless, bringing them the sacraments and praying the rosary with them on the streets. 

Before his death, Yu said: “There were many things I wanted to do for the poor, but I am heartbroken that I cannot be there.”

Yu, who wrote three books, was born in Seoul in 1962 and graduated from the Catholic University of Korea. After studying at the University of Wurzburg, Germany, and completing his military service, he was ordained a priest in 1992 in Seoul and earned a doctorate in theology from the Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology in Frankfurt, Germany. Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop of the Seoul Archdiocese in 2013. Known for his modest lifestyle, Yu kept a low profile and reportedly drove the same small, old car for decades.

African press group calls for development of ethical guidelines for use of AI

A meeting of the Union of the African Catholic Press (UCAP) ended with a call for media institutions in Africa to develop ethical guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

According to ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, over 100 Catholic journalists, speakers, and content creators gathered at the UCAP congress in Accra, Ghana, Aug. 10–17 from more than 19 African nations to reflect on the theme “Balancing Technological Progress and the Preservation of Human Values in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI).”

A series of resolutions and recommendations were shared with ACI Africa on Aug. 20 in which UCAP members “emphasized that technological progress must never take precedence over the human person and that the Church and media professionals alike have a responsibility to ensure that AI serves the common good.”

Police called to Catholic college in Bangladesh due to fear of protesting teachers

Administrators of a Catholic college in the Mymensigh Diocese in Bangladesh sought police protection last week when teachers and students threatened a public demonstration on campus.

Father Thadius Hembram, head of Notre Dame College, run by the priests of Holy Cross Congregation, told UCA News on Aug. 18 that he wrote to the district police chief saying: “We fear harm to life and property of the college. Therefore, we are requesting you to help us maintain law and order until the situation normalizes.”

In July, a group of 11 teachers issued a statement announcing a boycott of classes until demands were met. The college reportedly promised to fulfill the demands but the issues have not been resolved. One college official has blamed “pro-Islamist” teachers who are targeting the institution. Bangladesh is a majority-Muslim country. 

Although protestors postponed their planned Aug. 17 event, Hembram said the ongoing situation has been “chaotic and tense” and was “disrupting the academic environment of the institute.” He also said a committee has been formed to investigate the situation and next steps will be decided based on the committee’s recommendations. 

Bishop: Attacks on Ireland’s Indian community are shameful, betray ‘true irish welcome’

Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick in Ireland has called recent attacks on the Indian community in Ireland “shameful” and a “dreadful misrepresentation of the true Irish welcome.” 

Leahy made the comments at a recent retreat for the Syro-Malabar community in which hundreds of people traveled to Limerick from across the country, according to the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference. 

The bishop also expressed his admiration for the Syro-Malabar Church in Ireland. “I always admire your wonderful commitment to gathering together for a time of prayer and reflection, supporting and encouraging one another in the company of your beautiful families and friends. And there are always so many of you,” he said.

Bernhard Scholz is president of the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, also known as the Rimini meeting, which offers an extensive program of activities (political, economic, cultural, etc.) that brings thousands of people from various religions and walks of life each year during the last week of August to the town of Rimini on Italy’s Adriatic coast. / Credit: Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV called for “faith, hope, and charity to be translated into a great cultural conversion” in a message for the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, which will be held in Rimini, Italy, in the coming days.

The Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples, launched in 1980, offers an extensive program of activities (political, economic, cultural, etc.) that brings thousands of people from various religions and walks of life each year during the last week of August to the town of Rimini on Italy’s Adriatic coast.

The initiative was inspired by what Luigi Giussani, founder of the ecclesisal movement known as Communion and Liberation, calls the elemental experience, an innate desire for truth, beauty, and justice present in the heart of every human being and which constitutes the basis for dialogue and encounter between people of different faiths and cultures.

“Deserts are generally places that are rejected and considered unsuitable for life. And yet there, where it seems that nothing can be born, the sacred Scripture continually returns to narrate God’s passages,” the pope explained in the beginning of a letter sent Aug. 11 to Bishop Nicolò Anselmi of Rimini.

Thus, the people of God are born in the desert, where it is “through its harshness that the choice for freedom matures,” with the help of God who “transforms the desert into a place of love and decisions, makes it flourish like a garden of hope.”

The pope also noted that the prophets point to this arid environment “as the scene for a betrothal, to return to every time the heart grows lukewarm, to restart from God’s faithfulness,”and which has been inhabited by monks and nuns “on behalf of all of us, representing all of humanity, with the Lord of silence and of life.”

From the extensive program prepared for this meeting, Leo XIV particularly appreciated one of the expositions dedicated to the martyrs of Algeria.

“In them shines forth the Church’s vocation to dwell in the desert in deep communion with all humanity, overcoming the walls of indifference that set religions and cultures against one another, in full imitation of the movement of the Incarnation and giving of the Son of God.”

He explained that this “is the true path of mission. Not self-exhibition, in the contraposition of identities, but self-giving to the point of martyrdom of those who, day and night, in joy and amid tribulations, worship Jesus alone as Lord.”

Importance of dialogue

One of the hallmarks of the Rimini meeting is fostering spaces for dialogue between people: believers of various religions and atheists, and also between Christians with different sensibilities.

For Leo XIV, “these are important listening exercises, which prepare the ‘new stones’ with which to build the future that God already has in store for everyone, but which only unfolds when we welcome one another.”

“We can no longer afford to resist the kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of peace. And where those responsible for state and international institutions seem unable to enforce the rule of law, mediation and dialogue, religious communities and civil society must dare to be prophetic,” the pontiff emphasized.

This means “allowing ourselves to be driven into the desert and seeing now what can be born from the rubble and from so much, too much innocent suffering,” he added.

Leo XIV recalled that “God chose the humble, the small, the powerless, and from the womb of the Virgin Mary, made himself one of them, in order to inscribe his story in our history” such that “without the victims of history, without those who hunger and thirst for justice, without peacemakers, without widows and orphans, without the young and the elderly, without migrants and refugees, without the cry of all creation, we will not have new stones” to build the future.

“Denying the voices of others and giving up on understanding one another are failed and dehumanizing experiences. They must be opposed by the patience of encountering an ever-other Mystery, of which the difference of each person is a sign,” the pontiff pointed out, reiterating that the “unarmed and disarming” presence of Christians in contemporary society must translate “with skill and imagination, the Gospel of the kingdom into forms of development that provide alternatives to paths of growth without equity and sustainability.”

The pope emphasized: “A faith that is estranged from the desertification of the world or that indirectly contributes to tolerating it would no longer be following Jesus Christ.”

Regarding the digital revolution, he warned against the risk of “accentuating discrimination and conflict: It must therefore be inhabited with the creativity of those who, obeying the Holy Spirit, are no longer slaves but children.”

“Then the desert becomes a garden and the ‘city of God,’ foretold by the saints, transfigures our desolate places,” he noted.

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

James Dobson during an event marking the National Day of Prayer in the East Room of the White House on May 1, 2008, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 15:19 pm (CNA).

James Dobson, the evangelical Christian psychologist, author, and founder of Focus on the Family, an influential family counseling ministry, passed away on Aug. 21. He was 89 years old.

Dobson advised five U.S. presidents on family policy, most recently as a member of President Donald Trump’s Evangelical Executive Advisory board. He was considered a leading light in the American conservative movement’s fight for traditional family values, including a focus on defending the institution of marriage as between one man and one woman for life, biblical sexual ethics and gender roles, and innocent life through opposition to abortion.

“James Dobson was the indispensable man,” Peter Wolfgang, president of Family Institute of Connecticut Action, an affiliate of the Family Policy Councils that Dobson helped start, told CNA. “Just as I don’t think the Soviet Union would have collapsed without Pope John Paul II, I don’t think we’d be where we are in the culture wars without him. He was a builder of institutions.”

In 1977, after leaving nearly two decades in academia and private practice in California, Dobson began Focus on the Family, which produced a daily radio program that provided parenting advice as well as encouraged Christians to advocate for biblical values in schools and the wider culture. The radio program was carried by more than 7,000 radio stations around the world and had hundreds of millions of listeners.

“Focus on the Family is the mothership; it is where it all began,” Wolfgang noted. The organization, which by the 1990s had a budget that exceeded $100 million and produced, in addition to its radio programs, print publications, video projects, and camps, was the first of several ministries and organizations Dobson started. 

Key role in founding Alliance Defending Freedom

Dobson also helped found the Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defense Fund, now known as Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), in 1994, as well as the Washington-based political advocacy group Family Research Council. He was also involved in the founding of ecumenical, state-based Family Policy Councils, which exist in about 40 states. 

In 1986 Dobson served on the U.S. Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, where he met Alan Sears, who became CEO, president, and general counsel of ADF for 26 years. 

“I am sad to learn of the passing of my ally and friend, Dr. James Dobson,” Sears said in a press release. “He gave us the greatest gift any person can give: his name and reputation. It was an incredible trust and turned out to be a gift that changed the world.”

He continued: “It was through Focus on the Family that the ADF theme verse, John 15:5, was adopted, which acknowledges that ‘without Christ, we can do nothing.’ This has been the cornerstone of everything ADF has accomplished, and Dobson’s legacy will continue on through the many ministries he envisioned and led.”

Current ADF CEO and Chief Counsel Kristen Waggoner said: “Dobson’s bold leadership and commitment to the Gospel shaped the lives of so many and will continue to do so many years after his passing.”

Dobson’s leadership in the ‘culture wars’ 

According to Wolfgang, “James Dobson did more than any other single individual” to bring about the “turning of the tide” in the “culture wars,” as evidenced by the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the collapse of the transgender movement.

“He is the man who gave us the tools to do it,” Wolfgang said. 

In the beginning years of the contemporary pro-family movement in the U.S., “the larger movement was mostly evangelical,” Wolfgang said, noting, however, that “it was ecumenical. It was Catholic-friendly.”

“I’m just so grateful for what Dobson did,” Wolfgang continued. “I love the Catholic faith, we have the fullness of the truth, but in the late 20th century, we didn’t build the institutions to fight back like he did. We’re just now starting to do that. It was really Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council — all of that universe that began with Dobson — that really gave pro-life and pro-family Christians the tools.”

“The Protestant scene, like the Values Voter Summit, was the nuts and bolts on how to turn culture around. ‘How do we win on the state and federal level?’” Wolfgang continued.

He said it was not just Dobson’s advocacy for the family that helped but his ability to fight for it in the public realm.

“We’re living at a time now where a lot of our sturdy evangelical allies have started to go a little wobbly on the biggest cultural issues of the day,” he continued.

“Focus on the Family never lost its focus. It never strayed from the vision of its founder. It is like how religious orders in the Catholic Church who follow the vision of their founder flourished. They never lost their focus,” Wolfgang said.

Praise of the Catholic Church

In an historic moment in 2000, Dobson and Chuck Colson, another prominent evangelical leader, along with other Protestant and Catholic advocates for a Christian view of sexuality and the family, met with Pope John Paul II at a three-day conference in Rome.

Though the theological divides between Catholics and Protestants separated the Christian groups, they united over the “breakdown of the family and the deterioration of the respect for human life,” Russell Hittinger, a law professor at The Catholic University of America, said at the time.

Dobson himself said that “when it comes to the family, there is far more agreement than disagreement, and with regard to moral issues from abortion to premarital sex, safe-sex ideology and homosexuality, I find more in common with Catholics than with some of my evangelical brothers and sisters.”

Paul McCusker, who worked with Dobson at Focus on the Family for almost 20 years as a writer and director for the “Adventures in Odyssey” audio series, told CNA: “Dr. James Dobson was a man of Godly integrity, dedication, and immense love for the family. He was a help and guide to millions of people, offering wisdom and advice to couples, parents, and kids in all conditions.”  

A convert to Catholicism, McCusker is currently a senior content creator for the Augustine Institute. 

“He was a leading voice where families needed one. His creative vision allowed for efforts like ‘Adventures in Odyssey’ and so many other programs that have inspired the past couple of generations,” he continued. “Personally, I am grieved, even while celebrating Dr. Dobson’s greatest of homecomings.”

Early life and career

Born in 1936 in Louisiana, Dobson came from generations of Christian faith. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all pastors in the Church of the Nazarene. 

Dobson studied psychology as an undergraduate and received his doctorate in psychology in 1967 from the University of Southern California.

He worked as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine for 14 years and spent 17 years in the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles Division of Child Development and Medical Genetics, leaving both positions in 1976.

He published his first book and most famous parenting tome, “Dare to Discipline,” in 1970 in response to the disintegration of the family he encountered in his clinical practice. In the book, he encouraged parents to assert their authority over their children, advocating for restrained but principled corporal punishment.

He went on to publish nearly 70 books on parenting, discipline, traditional values, and marriage.

Dobson is survived by his wife of nearly 65 years, Shirley, and two children, daughter Danae and son Ryan, along with daughter-in-law Laura and two grandchildren.

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, speaks with “EWTN News Nightly” on March 4, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 14:15 pm (CNA).

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota and founder of the Catholic ministry Word on Fire recently warned about the proliferation of fake videos created with artificial intelligence (AI) circulating on social media impersonating him.

“The presence online of these videos generated by artificial intelligence that purport to be from me and that are not from me” is a problem that is becoming “increasingly difficult,” the prelate warned in a message posted Aug. 20 on his official social media.

Barron recounted that a few months ago, a woman told him that she felt so bad about an altercation he supposedly got into in a restaurant in Chicago, which was actually a fake video.

“I said I’ve not been in a restaurant in Chicago for about five years. Well, it was one of these AI-generated silly videos,” he explained.

He also recalled another case in which he was supposedly summoned to Rome by Pope Leo XIV for “high-level discussions.” The bishop clarified: “I’ve met Pope Leo once — it happened a couple of weeks ago in Rome; we put it up on our social media. I shook his hand and he smiled at me. That’s my one contact with him. I’m not being summoned to Rome for high-level discussions.”

A video even circulated in which he supposedly gave recommendations on how to “remove demons from your toilet.”

“My point,” Barron said, is “this is all ridiculous. And I think if you spend just a moment, you can tell the difference between an authentic video from me and one of these fakes.”

The bishop warned that this phenomenon is not harmless: “These are fraudsters. What they’re doing is making money off these things because they monetize them through ads … So it’s not just harmless fun people are having. It’s doing damage to my reputation, but it’s also doing damage to people who are being defrauded.”

In response, he urged the faithful not to be fooled: “Don’t take these silly things seriously. Don’t watch them. And what you look for is something on my YouTube channel, something on the official Word on Fire channel, and there’s a blue check you can see next to my name, the profile name. Look for that: That’s the sign that it’s a video from me.”

Finally, he called for common sense: “When you see these goofy images that are obviously generated by a computer and you hear me talking about some wild thing, I hope you have the sense to know ‘Look, that’s not really Bishop Barron speaking.’”

“It’s becoming increasingly a problem and I want you to know about it and do what you can to battle it. And God bless you,” he concluded.

Leo XIV’s concern for the ethical use of AI

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has expressed particular concern about the ethical use of AI. On June 7, the pontiff underscored the “urgent need” for “serious reflection and ongoing discussion on the inherently ethical dimension of AI as well as its responsible governance.”

A month later, in his message to participants at the AI ​​for Good 2025 summit held in Geneva, Switzerland, he recalled that “although responsibility for the ethical use of AI systems begins with those who develop, manage, and oversee them, those who use them also share in this responsibility.”

In his letter, the pope urged the promotion of “regulatory frameworks centered on the human person” and “proper ethical management” of AI technologies at both the local and global levels.

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

Flowers stand before Knock Shrine in Knock, Ireland, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025 / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA

Knock, Ireland, Aug 21, 2025 / 13:20 pm (CNA).

At Ireland’s Knock Shrine, the confessionals are “the engine room,” its rector says, powering this rural Marian apparition site as a place of hope and healing during the jubilee year.

“We have a very, very big outreach here in terms of confessions,” Father Richard Gibbons, who has led the shrine for more than a decade, told CNA on the eve of the 146th anniversary of the only documented apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary together with St. Joseph and St. John.

In a country where Mass attendance has sharply declined in recent decades, Irish Catholic leaders point to Knock as a place of welcome for those who have fallen away from practicing the faith.  

“Sometimes people who are in difficulty with their faith feel, ‘I’m not a good enough Catholic to go to Knock or to Lourdes or to Fátima,’ which is not the case,” Gibbons said. “It’s specifically because you might be struggling that you come to places like this and find hope.”

The shrine has 16 full-time chaplains who hear confessions daily from morning to evening, welcoming thousands, including those who come hesitantly after years away from the sacrament. 

“People come and they might have no intention of going to confession,” Gibbons said. “They see people going … they take a chance … and it’s completely transformative for them.”

“They open up and then you let the grace of God work.”

Pilgrimage season peaks each August with the National Novena to Our Lady of Knock, nine days of daily Mass, Eucharistic processions, and candlelit rosaries ending on the anniversary of the apparition on Aug. 21. Gibbons estimates that about 150,000 pilgrims visited the shrine during the novena this year.

The most ‘unique apparition in all the world’ 

On the rain-soaked evening of Aug. 21, 1879, 15 witnesses in the small village of Knock in County Mayo in western Ireland saw something extraordinary outside of their parish church of St. John the Evangelist: the Blessed Virgin Mary dressed in white robes and a crown with her hands and eyes turned toward heaven in prayer.

To her right was St. Joseph, who had gray hair and a beard, and to her left was St. John vested as a bishop with an open book in his hand. Beside them was a lamb standing on an altar in front of a cross surrounded by angels.

For two hours, despite the downpour, the apparition remained. Fifteen witnesses — men, women and children, the youngest just 5 years old — prayed the rosary before the silent figures. Remarkably, the ground around the church wall stayed dry.

“It’s the most unusual apparition. It’s unique in all the world,” Gibbons said. “At the heart and center is the Eucharist — the altar and the lamb.”

Unlike most Marian apparitions, Mary said nothing at Knock. Some historians suggest the silence reflected the cultural upheaval of 19th-century Ireland, when older generations still spoke Irish while the young were taught only English under colonial rule. What was clear, Gibbons said, is that the vision came at a time of suffering.

“There was just an awful lot of suffering and pain and violence at the time,” he said. “There was a land war going on with tenants being evicted … and many famines.”

The Great Famine of 1845–1849 devastated Ireland, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1 million people, with 1 million more emigrating from the country by 1951.

Recurring famines plagued Ireland in the decades that followed, particularly in the northwest County Mayo where the apparition occurred. The year 1879 was itself “a famine year” for the Irish people.

“Our Lady appeared when people needed hope and that connection with heaven,” Gibbons said.

Miracles and healings

Stories of cures have been linked to Knock since the first days after the apparition. Grace Mulqueen, curator of the Knock Museum, tells visitors about the shrine’s earliest miracle: a deaf girl named Delia Gordon who, just 10 days after the apparition, was healed when her mother scraped stone dust from the church’s gable wall and placed it in her ears.

“Her daughter was instantly cured,” Mulqueen said. “And once people began to hear of that cure … then people started to come with their walking sticks and crutches and hundreds of people reported that they were healed or cured.”

By 1880, the local parish priest had documented more than 600 claims of miraculous cures.

The most recent officially recognized miracle was the healing of Marion Carroll, who had long suffered from multiple sclerosis and was brought to Knock on a stretcher in 1989. After being blessed by a monstrance during Eucharistic adoration at Knock, she stood up, healed. The cure was formally recognized in 2019 after 30 years of medical investigation.

Jubilee pilgrim passport  

For the 2025 Jubilee Year, the Irish bishops launched a “Pilgrim Passport” encouraging visits to Knock, Croagh Patrick, and Lough Derg. Pilgrims collect stamps at each pilgrimage site they visit.

Lough Derg is the site of the Basilica of St. Patrick and the famed medieval “St. Patrick’s Purgatory” pilgrimage. Croagh Patrick is Ireland’s holiest mountain and where St. Patrick spent 40 days fasting, located one hour away from the Knock Shrine.

“It’s unbelievable the amount of people who come because they had just decided to visit Croagh Patrick because they were touring Mayo and then they picked up the passport,” Nicola Mitchell, director of pastoral planning at the shrine, told CNA.

She added that she has encountered people coming to get their passport stamped who “never would have dreamt of visiting Knock” otherwise.  

“And we’re inviting people who would never dream of coming to a place like Knock Shrine, inviting them and saying: There’s a warm welcome for you.” 

“And I think that you can’t enter the gate of Knock Shrine without feeling that peace that exists here,” Michell said.

Looking ahead to 2029 

Knock has twice drawn papal visits. St. John Paul II made it the focal point of his 1979 trip to Ireland, telling the crowd of 400,000 that visiting Knock was “the goal” of his pilgrimage. Pope Francis came in 2018 and later elevated Knock to the status of International Eucharistic and Marian Shrine. 

As the 150th anniversary of the apparition in 2029 approaches, organizers are already preparing. Gibbons hopes Pope Leo XIV might mark the occasion with a visit to Knock, as John Paul did for the 100th anniversary.  

“2029 will be a very, very special year,” Gibbons said. “We would love Pope Leo XIV to come, even just to celebrate the anniversary.” 

Pope Leo XIV prays during his Wednesday general audience on Aug. 13, 2025, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 12:42 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has called for a day of fasting and prayer for peace on Friday, Aug. 22, coinciding with the liturgical feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Holy Father made the announcement Aug. 20 during his greeting to Italian-speaking pilgrims at the conclusion of the catechesis for the general audience, recalling that Our Lady, in addition to being queen, is “also invoked as Queen of Peace.”

“While our earth continues to be wounded by wars in the Holy Land, in Ukraine, and in many other regions of the world, I invite all the faithful to devote the day of Aug. 22 to fasting and prayer, imploring the Lord to grant us peace and justice and to dry the tears of those who suffer as a result of the ongoing armed conflicts,” the pontiff said.

“Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede so that peoples may find the path to peace,” he prayed.

On Tuesday evening at Castel Gandolfo, Leo XIV expressed his hope for a solution to the crisis of the war in Ukraine but emphasized the need to continue to “work hard, pray hard” for peace. 

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

The Ten Commandments outside the Texas Capitol. / Credit: BLundin via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 12:12 pm (CNA).

A federal judge has partially blocked the state of Texas from enforcing its law ordering the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools. 

In a colorful ruling replete with off-the-cuff observances on topics ranging from Greta Garbo to the speed of Earth’s orbit, District Judge Fred Biery said the Texas law — signed by Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year — could pressure children into “religious observance” in violation of the U.S. Constitution. 

The state government did not establish a “compelling interest” in imposing such a burden on students, Biery said, and further it failed to make the law “narrowly tailored” enough to pass constitutional muster. 

“There are ways in which students could be taught any relevant history of the Ten Commandments without the state selecting an official version of Scripture, approving it in state law, and then displaying it in every classroom on a permanent basis,” he wrote. 

The judge suggested that the state Legislature could alternately require schools to display moral lessons not directly connected to religious practice, such as quotes from Unitarian minister Robert Fulghum’s book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” 

The ruling applies to nearly a dozen school districts, including the independent school districts of Houston and Fort Bend. The suit had been brought by a coalition of parents on behalf of their children. 

State Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement to media that his office will “absolutely be appealing this flawed decision.” 

“The Ten Commandments are a cornerstone of our moral and legal heritage, and their presence in classrooms serves as a reminder of the values that guide responsible citizenship,” he said. 

This is not the first setback over the past year for advocates of displaying the Ten Commandments in schools. 

In November 2024 a federal judge in Louisiana blocked that state’s Ten Commandments law, calling it “coercive” and “unconstitutional.” 

Elsewhere, in June 2024 the state of Oklahoma directed school districts to incorporate the Bible into middle school and high school curricula, with the state superintendent citing its historical and cultural significance in helping “contextualize” the present-day United States. 

One poll in June showed that a majority of U.S. adults support allowing Christian prayer in schools, though other polling showed a larger number believing the practice shouldn’t be mandatory, with more than half opposing teachers being allowed to lead classes in prayer.

View of the Greek island of Syros. / Credit: Hans Peter Schaefer/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

CNA Newsroom, Aug 21, 2025 / 10:51 am (CNA).

Prosecutors on the Greek island of Syros have filed felony charges against two Catholic clerics and six civilians in connection with the alleged embezzlement and money laundering of more than 3 million euros ($3.3 million) in diocesan funds.

The indictments this month follow an investigation that began in late 2024 when Greece’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority uncovered suspicious financial transfers from the Catholic Diocese of Syros to accounts linked to nightclub operations, Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported.

The probe discovered that church funds had allegedly been diverted to businesses involved in prostitution, drugs, and protection schemes over eight years, according to ProtoThema.

Prosecutors have charged two Catholic priests along with six civilians in connection with embezzlement exceeding 120,000 euros, complicity in embezzlement, and money laundering.

Central to the case is a 53-year-old nightclub owner from Patra. According to investigators, the businessman allegedly used church funds to sublet nightclub operations, serving as what prosecutors consider the “mastermind” of the scheme.

The financial misconduct prompted swift action from the Vatican.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Petros Stefanou’s resignation in April and appointed Archbishop Sevastianos Rossolatos, emeritus of Athens, as apostolic administrator of the diocese pending a permanent replacement.

The scandal affects one of the smallest Catholic communities in predominantly Eastern Orthodox Greece, where Catholics represent only about 50,000 of Greece’s 10.7 million people.

Located in the Cyclades island chain in the Aegean Sea, about 78 nautical miles southeast of Athens, Syros serves as the administrative center for the Catholic Diocese of Syros with Milos and Santorini.

The Anti-Money Laundering Authority’s investigation resulted in the freezing of bank accounts belonging to the accused civilians. Notably, the Catholic Church foundations’ accounts themselves were not frozen during the probe, ProtoThema reported.

The scandal has drawn particular attention due to its apparent connection to organized crime elements and the significant duration of the alleged financial misconduct.

Greek authorities traced suspicious transactions back eight years, with the most recent transfer of 50,000 euros occurring shortly before the investigation became public in late 2024, according to Euronews.

Following the Anti-Money Laundering Authority’s findings, Aegean Appellate Prosecutor Odysseas Tsormpatzoglou ordered a preliminary criminal investigation and summoned all accused parties to provide testimony before investigating judges on Syros, ProtoThema reported.

The Catholic Church in Greece initially stated it was unaware of the priests’ alleged actions when the scandal first emerged, Euronews reported.