Beloved Disciple Parish

Pope Leo XIV greets a young papal admirer in St. Peter’s Basilica during the general audience on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Aug 20, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday continued his catechesis on “Jesus Christ Our Hope” and invited Catholics around the world to dedicate the Aug. 22 feast of the Queenship of Mary to a day of prayer and fasting for world peace.

After delivering his Aug. 20 catechesis to approximately 6,000 international pilgrims gathered inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall, the Holy Father urged his listeners to ask the Mother of God and “Queen of Peace” to intercede for those suffering due to war and violence.

“As our world continues to be wounded by wars in the Holy Land, in Ukraine, and in other parts of the world, I invite all the faithful to live the day of Aug. 22 as a day of prayer and fasting, imploring the Lord to grant us peace and justice, and to wipe away the tears of those who suffer because of ongoing armed conflicts,” he said.

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

‘Forgiveness frees those who give it’

In his Wednesday catechesis, the Holy Father emphasized the power of forgiveness shown through the example of Jesus Christ when faced with the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, one of his 12 disciples.

“Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass ... he loved them to the end,” the pope said, citing Chapter 13 of St. John’s Gospel.

“To love until the end: Here is the key to understanding Christ’s heart,” he said. “A love that does not cease in the face of rejection, disappointment, even ingratitude.”

Speaking about the link between love and freedom, the Holy Father said Jesus was not blindsided by Judas’ decision but chose to reach out to him even though “his love must pass through the most painful wound” of betrayal.

“Instead of withdrawing, accusing, defending himself ... he continues to love: He washes the feet, dips the bread and offers it,” the pope said during the catechesis.

“He knows that true forgiveness does not await repentance but offers itself first, as a free gift, even before it is accepted,” he added.

According to Leo, the gift of forgiveness is not a sign of “weakness” or “forgetfulness” but a manifestation of “the true face of hope” and salvation.

“It is the ability to set the other free, while loving him to the end,” he said. “Jesus’ love does not deny the truth of pain, but it does not allow evil to have the last word.” 

“This is the mystery Jesus accomplishes for us, in which we too, at times, are called to participate,” he said.

Pope Leo spent more than one hour greeting groups of pilgrims who came to the Vatican to see him on Wednesday. 

After the catechesis, the Holy Father imparted his apostolic blessing to those gathered inside the Paul VI Audience Hall, then walked to Piazza del Sant’Uffizio and St. Peter’s Basilica to meet with pilgrims and share a condensed version of his catechesis in Italian, Spanish, and English.

Lebanese Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, the head of the Maronite Catholic Church, gives a homily during the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 9, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Aug 20, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV could visit Lebanon before the end of the year, the leader of the country’s Maronite Catholics said Tuesday.

In an interview with the Saudi-based television station Al Arabiya, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Raï, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, said Pope Leo XIV “will come to visit Lebanon sometime between now and December,” adding that he was not sure when the trip would be. 

“The visit will happen after a decision from the Vatican about when it will take place, so until now it’s not yet determined. But preparations for the visit are underway, though the exact timing is still unknown, waiting for the Vatican to announce it,” Raï said. 

The Vatican has not yet announced any official international trips for the new pontiff, but speculation has swirled for months about where his first journeys abroad may take him.

According to veteran Middle East expert and EWTN News contributor Alberto Fernández, the expected visit will likely be connected to a papal trip to Nicaea — located in modern-day İznik in northwestern Turkey — to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council. The most likely date is Nov. 30, St. Andrew’s Day, when a Catholic delegation traditionally visits Turkey. 

Reports have also suggested that Pope Leo XIV could add other stops to a Turkey visit. The National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, reported last month that a papal visit to Algeria — following in the footsteps of St. Augustine, who was bishop of Hippo in what is now Annaba — was among itineraries under consideration. Lebanon has now emerged as another possible destination.

A papal trip to Lebanon was long discussed under Pope Francis, but the country’s political and economic crises complicated planning. Francis publicly expressed his desire to visit Lebanon during an in-flight press conference returning from Iraq in March 2021. A few months later, Vatican officials said a visit would depend on the formation of a government.

In April 2022, then-President Michel Aoun announced that Francis would travel to Lebanon that June, but the trip never materialized. Lebanon was also floated as a potential meeting place between Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill after the start of the Ukraine war, an encounter that never happened.

Lebanon endured a prolonged political vacuum after Aoun’s term ended in October 2022. The country remained without a head of state until Joseph Aoun was elected president on Jan. 9, 2025.

The last papal visit to Lebanon was in September 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI visited Beirut and other parts of the country. Since then, Lebanon has been battered by the Syrian civil war, which brought in more than 1.5 million refugees, a financial collapse that saw the Lebanese pound lose 97% of its value against the U.S. dollar since 2019, and the devastating Beirut port explosion in 2020. Electricity outages left citizens with power for only hours a day during the worst of the crisis.

Tensions also remain high along Lebanon’s southern border. During the Gaza war, Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs in September and October 2024. Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Sept. 27, 2024, heightening fears of a broader conflict with Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s population of nearly 6 million is about 68% Muslim, divided between Sunnis and Shiites, and about 28% Christian, most of whom are Maronite Catholics, according to 2020 statistics from the Pew Research Center.

While the Vatican has not responded to a request for comment on Raï’s remarks, speculation continues about where Pope Leo XIV may travel in coming years. Spanish Catholics have expressed hope that Leo could visit Barcelona, Spain, next year for the completion of the Sagrada Família. Trips to Peru and the United States have also been discussed for 2026 — a year that will mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

ACI MENA correspondent Elias Turk provided the translation from Arabic of the cardinal’s remarks for this article.

The Kiruna Church on the move in northern Sweden, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. / Credit: TorbjørnS/Wikimeda (CC BY 4.0)

CNA Newsroom, Aug 20, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Sweden’s beloved Kiruna Church is concluding a carefully choreographed crawl across the Arctic mining town on Wednesday, completing a two-day, 3-mile journey that successfully saved the 113-year-old Lutheran landmark from destruction.

The mammoth move has seen the wooden structure, weighing over 600 tons, transported on specialized trailers traveling at about 1,600 feet per hour.

Located 90 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden’s far northern Lapland region, Kiruna is not only the northernmost city in Sweden but also sits atop one of the planet’s richest iron ore deposits, which has been mined continuously since the 1890s.

The relocation is part of Kiruna’s broader urban transformation, required because of subsidence — the gradual sinking of the ground triggered by the nearby iron ore mine.

More recently, Europe’s largest deposit of rare earths was located in the area. 

Sweden’s most beautiful building

Lena Tjärnberg, vicar of the Protestant parish, blessed the beginning of the historic relocation on Monday morning, acknowledging both the necessity and heartbreak of departing the church’s original site after more than a century of ministry.

“The church is leaving from a place where it truly belongs,” Tjärnberg told the BBC, which covered the unprecedented engineering feat.

“Everyone understands that it must be moved: We live in a mining community that depends on the mine.”

The red wooden church — voted Sweden’s most beautiful building constructed before 1950 in a 2001 national poll — was designed by architect Gustaf Wickman between 1909 and 1912 as a gift from LKAB, the state-owned mining company, to the local congregation.

LKAB’s expanding mining operations created the crisis requiring the church’s relocation.

The company announced in 2004 that mining near Kiruna’s city center threatened to damage inhabited areas and infrastructure in the coming decades.

The relocation required extensive engineering preparation spanning eight years and costing an estimated 500 million Swedish kronor ($52 million). Roads along the route were widened to 79 feet, and a viaduct was demolished to accommodate the massive structure measuring 131 feet wide, according to SVT, Sweden’s national broadcaster.

Special attention protected the church’s cultural treasures, particularly the large organ with over 2,000 pipes and Prince Eugen’s art nouveau painting called “The Holy Grove.”

An estimated 10,000 spectators are gathering to witness the historic move in the town of 18,000 residents, according to Dagens Nyheter, one of Sweden’s leading newspapers. 

King Carl XVI Gustaf is expected to attend, visiting the church during its journey and participating in ceremonial events, SVT reported.

‘Slow TV’ coverage of the move

The Swedish broadcaster provides live coverage of the entire relocation as “slow TV,” billing it as “The Great Church Move.”

The broader urban transformation affects approximately 3,000 homes, 1,000 workplaces, two schools, the city hospital, two highways, and national rail infrastructure over a 30-year period. About 6,000 residents — representing one-third of urban Kiruna’s population — must be resettled as LKAB continues mining operations.

The Svenska kyrkan (Church of Sweden) parish announced the church is scheduled to reopen to visitors at the end of 2026, following restoration work at its new location near Kiruna’s cemetery and new city center. 

The bell tower, moved separately from the church, will be reunited with the main structure.

The relocation has generated protest from within Sweden’s Sami community, with some saying traditional reindeer herding territories have been disrupted by the mining expansion, SVT reported.

Young people walk the streets of Camagüey, Cuba. / Credit: Camagüey Youth Ministry

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 20, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

During the Jubilee of Youth in Rome, young people from around the world gathered to celebrate a mosaic of universal faith. In the midst of this gathering, an inevitable question arose for young Cubans: How can they live their faith in a country fraught with challenges?

ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, spoke with Fernando Mario Díaz Hernández and Cynthia Izaguirre Roldán, both 19 and university students whose lives bear witness to a Catholic faith that steadfastly perseveres in everyday life despite the precarious conditions.

They live in Camagüey, a province located in the heart of Cuba, between the Atlantic and the Caribbean. According to the website Catholic Hierarchy, the Archdiocese of Camagüey has 15 parishes and 26 priests for approximately 800,000 inhabitants. Nationally, Aid to the Church in Need estimates that there are only 370 priests in the 11 dioceses.

Spiritual challenges

Hernández indicated that the large number of churches in his city is a factor that makes the Catholic faith present in the daily life of society. However, he contrasted this impression, noting that despite this, “being a young Catholic is difficult.”

Izaguirre agreed, adding that “there is a lack of priests” and “consistency in the faith, so that young people live their lives according to their convictions, not otherwise.”

Father Alberto Reyes Pías from St. Joseph Parish in Esmeralda has a vision that is not very different from that of the young people. The priest noted that there is a need to “find a path that leads them to a spiritual experience, to an encounter with a transcendent dimension.”

Reyes emphasized that today they face the challenge of “choosing the values of the spirit in a world where those values are viewed with indifference or even as disadvantages for progressing in life.”

In this regard, he emphasized that it’s a real challenge for young people “to get to the point where life has a meaning beyond the daily demands of survival.” The priest considers that the main task of the new generations is “not to lose hope that a different homeland is possible, in the midst of an environment of survival, precariousness, and lack of horizons.” 

The priest also warned about “an accelerated rise in Afro-Cuban religions,” which offer “an illusion of security and control over life, which in Cuba today is a very complicated issue, because you never know what will happen on a given day, much less in the long term.” He also emphasized that these religions “make no claims on moral behavior, which makes it easy and convenient to ‘get hooked’ on them.”

Other challenges for youth

The challenge is not only spiritual. According to figures from Human Rights Watch (HRW), Cuba’s population decreased by 10% between December 2021 and December 2023, primarily due to migration. Between January and August 2024 alone, the United States Border Patrol apprehended Cubans more than 97,000 times, which may include multiple encounters with the same persons.

Furthermore, the report describes an “economic crisis” that has caused power outages of up to 20 hours a day in some areas, along with “acute shortages of food, medicine, and other essential items.” According to HRW, in February, the government requested assistance from the United Nations World Food Program for the first time to obtain powdered milk for children under 7 years of age.

The same report warns that Cubans who criticize the government “risk criminal prosecution” without being guaranteed due process. In practice, “the courts are subordinate to the executive branch.” Furthermore, the state “controls virtually all media.”

Signs of hope

Amid precarious conditions, faith remains a source of hope. Izaguirre said that “through my faith and that of many others, we can aspire to a better future” and she dreams of “a country free from the shackles that limit us, where we can hold processions and Stations of the Cross with the hope that they won’t tell us ‘you can’t.’”

She noted that one of the things that inspires her is that, despite everything, hope “still persists in those who seek and find purpose in faith, as well as in those who fight daily for change in our country, despite the oppression and what this can mean.”

Far from being discouraged, Izaguirre is committed to “creating spaces for debate and activities that demonstrate that faith is still alive in Cuba. There are still young people willing to fight for change and keep that spark of hope alive in our homes.”

For his part, Hernández confessed that, although at times it’s difficult for him to “maintain hope,” his faith has saved him. “When I feel like I can’t go on, that it’s impossible to continue, I go before the Lord, and he comforts me, fills me with encouragement and strength to endure.”

That’s why he actively participates in youth ministry, so that, together with other young people, he can create “a space where they can receive formation, feel safe, and recover that source of energy that drives their lives, always for the greater glory of God.”

Reyes shared that he has noticed an increase in children who “grow up without fear of openly acknowledging their faith. Many children go to church alone, without their parents taking them,” and it’s the example of many children “that their parents have started attending church.”

The priest noted that, despite the emigration of young people, communities are “being renewed by young people who keep coming and who ask to undergo a process of growing in faith, and the change in their lives is a source of hope, seeing in them that beautiful reality we call ‘conversion.’”

Reyes also noted that in his experience, “couples are increasingly requesting the sacrament of marriage, and more and more people are baptizing their children, even if they don’t attend church.”

Catechumenate groups have also increased, and despite constant emigration, “communities are renewing themselves.”

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

Father Charles Gallagher, pastor of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., with Auxiliary Bishop Juan R. Esposito-Garcia at the blessing of the Frassati Chapel on Aug. 9, 2025. / Credit: Steve and Bernadette Dalgetty

Washington D.C., Aug 20, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

After years of planning, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., officially opened its new Frassati Chapel earlier this month. Members of the parish say they hope it will help galvanize Catholics to make perpetual adoration possible in the city. 

The chapel was blessed on Aug. 9 by Bishop Juan R. Esposito-Garcia, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Washington.

Named after the soon-to-be canonized Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati — who was known to spend hours throughout the night in adoration — the Frassati Chapel will serve as a place for Catholics in the District to pray throughout the day and to attend Eucharistic adoration at designated times throughout the week. 

As of yet, no parish in Washington, D.C., offers perpetual adoration, but Immaculate Conception’s pastor, Father Charles Gallagher, said he hopes Catholics in the city will band together to change the tide. 

A place for people in the capital to pray before the Blessed Sacrament  

Located on the ground floor of a building one block from the church, the Frassati Chapel has just enough room for the tabernacle, a handful of chairs, and a kneeler. A portrait of Frassati hangs on the wall alongside a relic of his clothes.

“I thought it would be really cool to have a little chapel in the place with an outside-access door so that people could just come and go,” Gallagher said, noting the idea came to him while in conversation with some of the young adults in the parish. “Everyone was thrilled with the idea.”

“I think this really can fill what I believe is a real need in the capital city here, where there is no perpetual adoration,” he said, explaining that most churches in the archdiocese only offer a few hours per day.

Gallagher pointed out that while many Catholics, himself included, grew up with perpetual adoration chapels in their suburban communities, no such thing exists in D.C.

“[Adoration] has always been something very special to me,” he said. “I remember before I was in seminary, at my home parish in Hyattesville [Maryland], St. Mark’s, there was a perpetual adoration chapel.”

“When I was discerning more about whether to enter the seminary, I would go there sometimes to pray, and it just had a powerful impact on me,” he recalled. “And so that’s just been part of something just central to our own prayer life.” 

When Gallagher first arrived at Immaculate Conception eight years ago, the parish had one Holy Hour per month. He said he remembered thinking: “That’s awesome — but we can improve.” The parish has since grown its adoration times from one hour per month to three hours per week. “It’s not a ton, but it’s a significant increase, so that’s been the trajectory.” 

All adoration times at the parish are now located in the new Frassati Chapel, except for the parish’s exceedingly popular Holy Hour at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, which is regularly attended by 50 to 60 people, according to Gallagher.

“There’s a need not just to have Eucharistic exposition, which is a great blessing, but to have a place for people to pray before the Blessed Sacrament before and after work hours, basically, because there’s nothing like that,” he said.

Gallagher emphasized the particular need for such a place in D.C., where he said “there is a real temptation to worship power.”

“I think there’s just something about giving people access to just sitting before God and worshipping God has a way of just grounding people and giving them peace, but also giving them perspective,” he said. “When you walk around town, there’s these monuments that are just overwhelming; and the deals that are made here, the power brokers that live here, the major politicians. I don’t need to emphasize how crucial the city is in the world of prayers.”

‘Like an explosion of grace in the city’

Kevin J. Parker, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception since 2001, told CNA that the opening of the Frassati Chapel is “a wonderful move: both seemingly old fashioned but at the same time innovative.” A sacristan and lector at the parish, Parker has devoted the past year to researching the parish’s history from its founding in 1864 to the present.  

“Immaculate Conception,” he said, “is no stranger to innovation.” According to the retired fundraising consultant, “the first time a Mass was ever broadcast live on East Coast radio was from Immaculate Conception in 1930.” 

“It’s been a challenge getting to this point,” he said of the chapel, “but I think that a lot of us are thrilled that this is finally happening.” 

Parker added: “I think that our move to revive — or reinvigorate the practice of perpetual adoration — is something that is greatly needed, particularly in Washington where so many have seen their careers and livelihoods disappear overnight and where, I believe, we feel the weight of world events and suffering perhaps more than other places.”

“I think that the biggest challenges, frankly, are logistical and ensuring that access to the chapel is simple and safe at all hours,” he continued.

“The story of the parish is one of faith, resilience, and innovation, and the Frassati Chapel represents one more way in which our little Church is both responding to and a leader in facing some of the challenges that face us today,” he said.

Olivia Morris, 28, a parishioner of Immaculate Conception since January 2023 and a graduate student at George Washington University, has also been looking forward to the chapel opening, in particular due to her schedule. 

“I don’t operate on the 8-5 schedule like everyone else in the city so having a chapel open for me to go pray when I need it will bring untold blessings to my life,” she said. 

Morris stressed the importance of Immaculate Conception’s efforts to bring perpetual adoration to the city, declaring: “Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament being exposed perpetually will literally change the fabric of the city of Washington.” 

“The lifestyle in D.C. that tells young people to work harder and longer hours, earn more money and advance in their careers to be happy is not satisfying,” she said. “Young people are waking up to that lie and are very aware of their thirst for something deeper. That is why we are seeing so many young people convert to Catholicism or return to the Church after years of being away … I am convinced that we would see more peace in the city, more conversions of hearts, and just an all around better D.C. if we had perpetual adoration.” 

Echoing Morris, another parishioner, Taylor Dockery, 28, told CNA: “Perpetual adoration would serve a tremendous benefit to the spiritual health of our city. The collective sacrifice it would require, in a city where so many pack their schedule, would be a powerful and visible testament to the Catholic faith.”

An Immaculate Conception parishioner since 2023, Dockery expressed the importance of adoration in his life as “an intentional pause” outside Sunday Mass. “I am excited!” he said of the chapel’s opening. “I know there’s been years of prayer and work to bring it to completion.”

St. Bernard of Clairvaux. / Credit: Sistermaryhelen, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Every year on Aug. 20, the Catholic Church honors St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the 12th-century monk who helped to build up the Cistercian order — some of whom are known today as the Trappists.

Bernard is considered the last of the Church Fathers in the Western tradition.

He was born during the year 1090 near the French town of Dijon. His father, Tescelin, and his mother, Aleth, belonged to the highest class of nobility in the region and had six other children. Bernard, their third child, received an especially good education in response to a local man’s prophecy that he was destined for great things.

After his mother’s death, Bernard began to consider a life of solitude and prayer. At Citeaux, near Dijon, a group of monks had gathered in 1098 with the intention of returning to St. Benedict’s original rule of monasticism from the sixth century. Bernard, together with 30 other noblemen of Dijon, sought to join this monastery around the year 1113.

Three years into his life as a monk of Citeaux, Bernard received a commission from his abbot to become the head of a new monastery, practicing the same rule of life. Bernard himself dubbed the new monastery’s location “Clairvaux,” or “Clear Valley.”

In his zeal to set an example for the Cistercian monastic reform, Bernard lived a life of such severe penance that his health suffered and his superiors had to persuade him to be more moderate. Meanwhile, the monastery thrived and attracted a large number of men, including Bernard’s five brothers and his widowed father.

In 1119, Bernard played an important role in the first general chapter of the Cistercian order, which drew up its constitutions and rules. The following year, he composed a treatise on the vice of pride and the virtue of humility as well as a series of homilies in praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He also defended the Cistercians against charges from other monks, who claimed that their rule was too severe.

At the local Council of Troyes, in 1128, Bernard assisted the cardinal bishop of Albano in resolving internal disputes within the Church of Paris. At this same council, Bernard outlined the rule of life for the Knights Templars, the Catholic military order charged with the defense of the Holy Land. Bernard developed the ideals of Christian knighthood in his writings addressed to the Templars.

These were not the abbot of Clairvaux’s last forays into civil and religious controversies. He also defended the Church’s freedom against the intrusions of temporal rulers, and he admonished bishops who had abandoned their sees. In 1130, he had the responsibility of determining which of two rival clerics — both claiming to have been elected pope — would ultimately occupy the chair of Peter.

Bernard became a close adviser to Pope Innocent II, who prevailed in the controversy. Further threats to the Church’s peace and unity occupied him for much of the 1130s, although he continued to produce important writings, including his commentary on the biblical Song of Songs. He also sent monks to establish new Cistercian monasteries throughout Western Europe.

One of Bernard’s own Cistercian monks became Pope Eugene III in 1145, prompting Bernard to write him a letter of instructions that subsequent popes have found valuable. When Eugene declared a crusade for the protection of Christians in Antioch and Jerusalem during 1146, he appointed Bernard to strengthen the faith of the crusaders with his preaching.

The “Second Crusade,” however, failed in its attempt to take the Syrian city of Damascus. This was a heavy blow to Bernard’s cause, and he received undue blame for a defeat more likely due to political intrigue and military misconduct. Bernard sent a letter to the pope stating that the crusade failed because of the moral failings of its participants.

Pope Eugene III, Bernard’s onetime disciple and close friend, died in 1153 and was eventually beatified. Bernard died the same year, at the age of 63, having spent 40 years as a monk. He had personally founded 163 Cistercian monasteries, a number that had more than doubled by the time of his death.

Pope Alexander III canonized St. Bernard of Clairvaux in 1174. During the 19th century, Pope Pius VIII declared him a doctor of the Church.

This story was first published on Aug. 14, 2011, and has been updated.

Pope Leo XIV prays at the Marian shrine at Mentorella on Aug. 19, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

National Catholic Register, Aug 19, 2025 / 18:43 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV made a private visit Tuesday to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mentorella, Mother of Graces, near Rome, underscoring his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

A favorite pilgrimage site of St. John Paul II and close to the picturesque mountain town of Capranica Prenestina, it is the fourth Marian shrine the Holy Father has visited since his election on May 8.

The Vatican said in a short statement that after visiting and praying at the shrine, Leo XIV spent some time with members of the Polish Resurrectionist congregation who run the shrine before returning to Castel Gandolfo.

Perched on the top of a small mountain overlooking a vast valley below with breathtaking views, the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace at Mentorella is said to have been founded in the fourth century by Constantine, who wanted to commemorate the site of St. Eustachius’ conversion. Pope Sylvester I had it consecrated around 335, and in the sixth century the land was given to the Benedictine monks at nearby Subiaco.

The shrine’s small church, with its gable façade and ogival windows, dates to the 13th century; behind it is a mystical grotto where St. Benedict is alleged to have lived for two years. During his visit on Tuesday, Pope Leo XIV lit a candle and prayed there.

The shrine as it is seen today was developed by Jesuit scholar Father Athanasius Kircher in the 17th century, believing it to be one of the 12 abbeys St. Benedict founded. The pope at that time, Innocent XIII, asked for his heart to be buried there.

The Polish Resurrectionist congregation has looked after the shrine since 1857.

The shrine was the first Marian shrine Pope John Paul II visited after his election in 1978. He made several pilgrimages to Our Lady of Mentorella throughout his pontificate, using it as a place for personal prayer and reflection. During his visits, he used to cherish a hiking path leading to the shrine, now known as the Wojtyla Trail, which makes its way through a captivating landscape of small waterfalls surrounded by red rock.

Benedict XVI also visited the holy site soon after his election in 2005, celebrating Mass there exactly 27 years to the day of John Paul II’s first visit.

Leo’s fourth Marian shrine

Pope Leo has so far visited three other Marian shrines, the first being the Augustinian-run Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano about an hour’s drive from Rome, on May 10, two days after his election. While in Genazzano he left a written note for Our Lady expressing his devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel and asking for her help in his new mission.

He has also prayed before the “Salus Populi Romani” icon in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome soon after his election — a special place of devotion also for Pope Francis, who is buried there — and on Aug. 17 he celebrated Mass at the Shrine of Santa Maria della Rotonda in Albano near his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo.

This week’s visit is therefore just the latest example of Pope Leo’s very apparent Marian devotion. Mariologists such as professor Mark Miravalle of Franciscan University of Steubenville have noted clear devotion to Mary in Leo’s pontificate so far — in common with Leo XIII — as well as possibly providential indications such as his papal election on the previous feast of the Mediatrix of All Graces. 

The pope has repeatedly referred to the Blessed Virgin in his addresses and homilies as a source of consolation, hope, and help, particularly for those facing illness and suffering, and encouraging the faithful to grow in devotion to Our Lady. 

This week, the Vatican disclosed that he had responded in a magazine to a letter from a mother who shared some of her struggles with faith, inviting her to keep the Virgin Mary as a firm point of reference amid difficulties.

In an address during a 1978 pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mentorella, Pope John Paul II said the holy site, “hidden among the mountains, particularly fascinated me.”

Noting that the “Mother of Christ went to the hills to say her ‘Magnificat,’” he said that “this is a place in which man opens to God in a special way: [A] place where, far from everything, but also at the same time close to nature, one can speak confidentially to God himself. One feels within one what is man’s personal call.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Pope Leo XIV blesses the crowd at his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Basilica on Aug. 13, 2025, at the Vatican. Due to the heat, the pope gave his address in Paul VI Audience Hall but also greeted pilgrims in other locations. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 19, 2025 / 14:33 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV sent a telegram to the bishops of the Amazon region participating in a meeting in Bogotá, Colombia, this week, reminding them of the importance of caring for nature without becoming slaves or worshippers of it.

In his message, addressed to Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, the Holy Father thanked the prelates for their “efforts made to promote the greater good of the Church in favor of the faithful of the beloved Amazonian territory.”

Recalling what was learned during the Synod on the Amazon in 2019, the pontiff urged the bishops to seek, based on the unity and collegiality proper to an “episcopal body,” ways to help “diocesan bishops and apostolic vicars concretely and effectively carry out their mission.”

To achieve this, Pope Leo XIV proposed three dimensions: the Church’s mission to proclaim the Gospel to all people, the just treatment of the peoples who live there, and the care of our common home.

“It is necessary that Jesus Christ, in whom all things are encompassed, be announced with clarity and immense charity among the inhabitants of the Amazon,” the pope affirmed, emphasizing the need to “give them the fresh and pure bread of the good news and the heavenly food of the Eucharist, the only means to truly be the people of God and the body of Christ.”

He also emphasized that “wherever the name of Christ is preached, injustice recedes proportionally, for, as the Apostle Paul asserts, all exploitation of man by man disappears if we are able to receive one another as brothers and sisters.”

Within this “perennial doctrine,” the Holy Father emphasized the importance of caring for the “home” that God the Father “has entrusted to us as diligent stewards, so that no one irresponsibly destroys the natural goods that speak of the goodness and beauty of the Creator.”

“Nor, much less, subjects oneself to them as a slave or worshipper of nature, since things have been given to us to attain our end of praising God and thus obtaining the salvation of our souls,” the Holy Father stated, citing St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. 

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

Bishop Benedictus Hanno receives the Our Lady of Persecuted Christians icon in Qaraqosh, Iraq, on Aug. 6, 2025, from Father Benedict Kiely of Nasarean.org. / Credit: Father Benedict Kiely

ACI MENA, Aug 19, 2025 / 14:03 pm (CNA).

Marking the 11th anniversary of forced displacement of Christians in Iraq, Father Benedict Kiely presented an icon of Our Lady of Persecuted Christians to Bishop Benedictus Younan Hanno, Syriac Catholic archbishop of Mosul and its dependencies, on Aug. 6 in Qaraqosh, Iraq.

The bishop announced that the icon will be placed in St. Ephrem Church in Qaraqosh, which is currently under construction and expected to open in November.

Kiely, a priest of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, England, has spent the last decade supporting persecuted Christians. In 2015, while visiting Iraq to assist in Aid to the Church in Need’s efforts to shelter and feed victims of forced displacement, he became deeply bound to the Christians there who suffer for their faith, leading him to return many times and expand his support.

His efforts bore fruit in 2016 with the official founding of Nasarean.org, dedicating his priesthood to preaching, writing, and raising global awareness of the persecution of Middle Eastern Christians “as well as working to create job opportunities to help them remain in their historic homeland, something that cannot be achieved without a source of livelihood,” he told ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner.

“Over 10 years of service, our organization has supported more than 60 small projects in Iraq alone in addition to other initiatives in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Armenia, and Jordan,” Kiely said. “We focus on small and family-run projects to help families remain rooted in the land of their forefathers.”

Spiritual support before humanitarian aid

Driven by a sincere desire to call Church members to intensify prayer for their persecuted brothers and sisters worldwide and to draw attention to their suffering, Kiely has launched a spiritual initiative to establish shrines dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the title “Our Lady of Persecuted Christians.” 

“A Catholic organization founded by a priest cannot be just like any other humanitarian NGO [nongovernmental organization] that provides material aid only,” Kiely explained. “Prayer must be at the heart of our mission. That is why we have created these shrines, to offer a space for prayer for suffering Christians, many of whom are in the diaspora, so they can also be a sign of hope.”

This year, the group launched an annual World Day of Prayer for the Persecuted on July 24, which will be observed every year at all shrines.

After the dedication at the Church of St. Michael in New York City — which featured an icon of the Virgin in traditional Chaldean dress holding the Child Jesus — there were dedications at six more shrines around the world: Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Gregory in Warwick, London; St. John Guardian of Our Lady Parish in Clinton, Massachusetts; Akalla Church in Stockholm; Byzantine Chapel of Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyoming; and Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Astana, Kazakhstan. The seventh shrine in Qaraqosh will have its dedication this October.

Most of the dedication ceremonies included the local bishop who celebrated the Divine Liturgy and blessed the icon.

Middle Eastern Christian artists

While the icons share stylistic similarities, they all bear their title in Syriac. “I wanted it to express the identity and continuity of Iraq’s Christians and remind the world that the language of Christ is still alive and spoken in this land,” he explained. 

Kiely prefers the icons to be created by Middle Eastern Christian artists to carry symbolic meaning and offer them both encouragement and support. The Qaraqosh icon was written by Deacon Ibrahim Lallo, an artist from nearby Bartella.

Kiely concluded with a message of hope to Iraq’s Christians: “You are not forgotten. The Church in the West prays for you and supports you so you can remain in your historic homeland, keep your faith, your language, and your heritage. You have been here for 2,000 years, and these shrines are a sign of our concern for you and our commitment to stand by your side.”

A federal district court in California ordered the Oakland Unified School district to grant equal access of school facilities to a Christian club. / Credit: zimmytws/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Aug 19, 2025 / 12:35 pm (CNA).

A federal district court has ordered that a California school district must grant a Christian children’s club equal access to school facilities, arguing that the denial of that access violates the club’s free speech rights.

The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) will be required to provide “equal access to available spaces and benefits” to the group Child Evangelism Fellowship of NorCal, District Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. said in an Aug. 15 ruling.

The court order found that the school district apparently engaged in “viewpoint discrimination” in violation of the U.S. Constitution when it barred the group from after-school use of campus facilities.

The district had argued that the Christian group did not meet the administrative requirements to be allowed access to school space and that allowing the group on campus could constitute a violation of the Constitution’s establishment clause, which forbids government favoring of religion.

The school district’s arguments were “remarkably short on caselaw,” Gilliam noted, while court precedent “clearly favor[s]” the Christian group’s position.

The court order said the district was forbidden from enforcing rules “in any manner that denies [the Christian group] access to OUSD facilities on an equal basis to the access provided to similarly situated nonprofit organizations.”

The evangelical organization was represented in its bid by the legal group Liberty Counsel. Group founder Mat Staver described the decision as a “great victory.”

“Child Evangelism Fellowship gives children a biblically-based education that includes moral and character development,” he said. “Good News Clubs should be in every public elementary school.”

Gilliam in his order directed the school district and the Christian group to present a jointly-agreed-upon plan to implement the ruling by Sept. 16.

The judge said the court would determine “what if any additional language is needed” to ensure the ruling is carried out.