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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 14, 2025 / 19:00 pm (CNA).

A Catholic ministry called Eden Invitation is working to "create space to receive the whole person" for people with LGBTQ+ experiences. Founders Anna Carter and Shannon Ochoa said they started the organization to form a community of Christians who want to stay close to God and their faith but experience discord in their desires and attractions.

Carter, the ministry's president, explained in a Valentine's Day "EWTN News Nightly" interview that these experiences don't need to be "a cause for shame" but rather can be "an invitation to surrender more deeply to Jesus in your life."

"I recognized in high school that I experienced attraction to other women. But I also was really into youth group and had these beautiful experiences of prayer and community, and I knew that the Church was home." 

Carter said she realized, "OK, this isn't really going away." So she asked herself: "How do I work this out? What does discipleship look like? What does friendship look like? What does vocation look like in the midst of all of this?"

She said Eden Invitation flowed out of that, "really trying to create community for other people wrestling with sexuality and gender in the Church and world today." 

The group now operates across the nation with members who describe themselves as "disciples with LGBTQ+ experiences, building community with others who desire a way of life in congruence with Christ and his Church."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines chastity as "the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being."

Carter commented on this definition and the act of being chaste, saying that we need an "awareness of our body and soul and the reality that has for our sexual relationships."

"Also, I think being aware of these places where we do experience discord and desires, being honest about that, and bringing all of that to God," she added.

During her "EWTN News Nightly" interview, Carter was asked what her response is to young adults questioning their attractions and desires. 

"To have increased vulnerability in some of your close relationships, and that this doesn't have to actually be an obstacle to your holiness, but maybe this is actually a means that Jesus is inviting you to keep surrendering to him and just continuing to move forward in your life and discipleship," she said. 

"I think that as we grow in chastity, as a virtue, it's about developing these habits of using our reason and our intellect within our desires. There's a lot that can be gained as we grow in self-discipline in our lives." 

"I also think it affects the way we see other people, not just as objects for our own pleasure or own use but as people worthy of reverence and dignity."

Carter further discussed the virtue of chastity in a recent Eden Invitation blog post where she expressed that living a chaste life goes beyond sexuality. She referenced Pope Francis' description of chastity where he said that it "is freedom from possessiveness in every sphere of one's life." 

"Only when love is chaste is it truly love," the pontiff said. 

Referring to Valentine's Day, Carter concluded her "EWTN News Nightly" interview by saying: "I think, especially on Valentine's Day, there can be a lot of mixed feelings if you find yourself in particular states of life. Stay close to the Lord, because no matter what your state of life is in this moment, that's the place that God has you and that God wants to meet you."

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CNA Staff, Feb 14, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).

Addressing concerns raised by Pope Francis about the U.S. government's initiation of a mass deportation program, U.S. border czar Tom Homan defended the morality of the Trump administration's enforcement policies, saying the administration's approach is saving lives and preventing human trafficking.

"What the pope needs to understand is that President Trump and I have been very clear that our prioritization right now are public safety threats and national security threats," Homan said in a Feb. 13 interview on EWTN's "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo." 

When asked about whether the administration is respecting the dignity of deportees, Homan, a lifelong Catholic, responded: "We absolutely are." 

Strong border enforcement, Homan went on to emphasize, reduces tragic deaths and exploitation suffered by migrants and citizens alike. For example, he noted that a sizable percent of female migrants who "make that journey through the cartels get sexually assaulted."

"So when President Trump has illegal immigration down 90%, how many women aren't being sexually assaulted? How many children aren't dying crossing the river? How many women and children aren't sex trafficked in this country? How many Americans aren't dying from fentanyl poisonings?" Homan said. "President Trump's policies save lives."

"We have a right to have a secure border," Homan noted. "We have the right to our sovereignty, just like the Vatican," he added.

Referencing the Vatican's tough new penalties for illegal entry into its own territory, which include fines from $10,000 to $25,000 and prison sentences from one to four years, Homan said the Vatican State's penalties are "more severe" and "more extreme" than those of the United States.

Supports funding cuts to end 'magnet for illegal immigration'

When asked about federal funding cuts for Catholic Charities and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that serve migrants, Homan said that when organizations help make the process easier for people illegally crossing the border, "you are feeding a monster that kills thousands of people every year." 

"The U.S. government, we're going to be out of the business of this because it's just, it's a magnet for more illegal immigration to come," Homan said of the government's decision to cut funding for migrant services. "We'll leave it up to, you know, the way it used to be," he said, referring to private, charitable funding.  

"I've gotten reports that there have been U.S. citizens show[ing] up at a Catholic Charities place and they were turned down when they asked for help because they weren't getting paid for it," Homan revealed, saying investigations into these alleged activities are underway.

Labor and sex trafficking: finding the children 

Homan said Trump has commissioned him to track down hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children that were brought into the country during the Biden administration. While some may be safe and with family, many were likely trafficked by cartels, he said.

"President Trump gave me three things: to secure the border, run a deportation operation, and find these children," Homan said. 

"Under the last administration, over half a million children were separated from their families, put in the hands of criminal cartels to enter this country illegally," Homan said. "And who knows what happened to them during that journey? I can tell you many of them were sexually assaulted. I know. I've done this for three and a half decades. I know how these groups operate." 

Homan indicated that many of these children "have been sex trafficked and forced labor traffick[ed] in this country, and we're already finding them." 

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Vatican City, Feb 14, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis was admitted to Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Friday to receive medical care for bronchitis after struggling with the illness for over a week.

The Vatican said the pontiff's schedule was cleared through at least the morning of Feb. 17 while he undergoes "diagnostic tests" and treatment.

The respiratory infection is the latest health challenge for the 88-year-old pope, who has been struggling with breathlessness, which has prevented him on several recent occasions from reading the entirety of his speech or homily.

The pope was also treated for a contusion on his right forearm after falling at his residence last month and suffered a facial injury and cold during the Christmas season.

Francis spent much of the past decade as pope in relatively good health but has dealt with several painful medical conditions over the last few years.

Here is a timeline charting Pope Francis' recent health concerns:

December 2020

A bout of sciatic pain in the final days of 2020 keeps Pope Francis from presiding at the Vatican's liturgies on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Francis has suffered from sciatica for a number of years; he spoke about it during an in-flight press conference returning from a trip to Brazil in July 2013.

"Sciatica is very painful, very painful! I don't wish it on anyone," he said about the condition, which starts in the lower back and can cause pain running down the back of the thigh and leg to the foot.

January 2021

Pope Francis cancels three more public appearances at the end of the month due to sciatic nerve pain.

July 2021

A problem with his colon lands the pope in the hospital on July 4.

Pope Francis undergoes surgery to relieve stricture of the colon caused by diverticulitis. The three-hour surgery includes a left hemicolectomy, the removal of one side of the colon.

The pope spends 11 days in Rome's Gemelli Hospital recovering from the surgery.

January 2022

Pope Francis shares that he is having problems with his knee.

"Excuse me if I stay seated, but I have a pain in my leg today ... It hurts me, it hurts if I'm standing," the pope tells journalists from the Jerusalem-based Christian Media Center on Jan. 17.

Francis tells the crowd at his general audience that the reason he is unable to greet pilgrims as usual is because of a temporary "problem with my right leg," an inflamed knee ligament.

February 2022

Pope Francis cancels two public events at the end of February due to knee pain and doctors' orders to rest.

In the month that follows, he receives help going up and down stairs but continues to walk and stand without assistance.

April 2022

During a trip to Malta, Pope Francis uses a lift to disembark the papal plane. A special lift is also installed at Malta's Basilica of St. Paul in Rabat so Francis can visit and pray in the crypt grotto without taking the stairs.

On the return flight on April 3, Francis tells journalists: "My health is a bit fickle, I have this knee problem that brings out problems with walking."

At the Vatican's Good Friday service, the pope does not lie prostrate before the altar as he has done in the past.

He also does not celebrate the Easter Vigil Mass on April 16 or participate in the paschal candle procession but sits in the front of the congregation in a white chair.

On April 22 and April 26, Francis' agenda is cleared for medical checkups and rest for his knee. The following day, the pope tells pilgrims at his general audience that his knee prevents him from standing for very long.

Pope Francis also begins to remain seated in the popemobile while greeting pilgrims in St. Peter's Square.

On April 30, he says that his doctor has ordered him not to walk.

May 2022

The pope says at the beginning of the month that he will undergo a medical procedure on his knee, "an intervention with infiltrations," by which he may have meant a therapeutic injection, sometimes used to relieve knee pain caused by ligament tears.

Two days later, he uses a wheelchair in public for the first time since his July 2021 colon surgery. Throughout May he continues to use the wheelchair and avoids most standing and walking.

Francis also undergoes more than two hours of rehabilitation for his knee every day, according to an Argentine archbishop close to the pontiff.

The treatment "is giving results," then-Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández writes on Twitter on May 14 after he has a private meeting with Francis.

Other than his knee, "he's better than ever," Fernández adds.

Earlier, Lebanon's tourism minister says that a reported papal visit to the country in June was postponed due to the pope's health.

The pope does stand for long periods of time when celebrating a May 15 Mass in St. Peter's Square. Afterward, a seminarian from Mexico catches a moment of lightheartedness between pilgrims and the pope as he greets them from the popemobile. Someone thanks the pope for being present at the Mass, despite his knee pain, to which Francis responds: "Do you know what I need for my knee? A bit of tequila."

June 2022

In early June, the Vatican postpones Pope Francis' planned visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan for health reasons. The trip was planned for July 2–7 but is put off "at the request of his doctors, and in order not to jeopardize the results of the therapy that he is undergoing for his knee," according to the Vatican.

Less than a week later, the Vatican announces that Pope Francis will not preside over the June 16 Corpus Christi Mass because of his knee problems and "the specific liturgical needs of the celebration."

Pope Francis comments on his health and speaks about the effects of old age in general terms during his June 15 general audience.

"When you are old, you are no longer in control of your body. One has to learn to choose what to do and what not to do," the pope says. "The vigor of the body fails and abandons us, even though our heart does not stop yearning. One must then learn to purify desire: Be patient, choose what to ask of the body and of life. When we are old, we cannot do the same things we did when we were young: The body has another pace, and we must listen to the body and accept its limits. We all have them. I too have to use a walking stick now."

Toward the end of the month, on June 28, Pope Francis walks with a cane to meet bishops from Brazil and tells them: "I have been able to walk for three days."

August 2022

On Aug. 4, the Vatican announces that Massimiliano Strappetti, a Vatican nurse, has been appointed as Pope Francis' "personal health care assistant."

November 2022

José María Villalón, the head doctor of the Atlético de Madrid soccer team, is recruited to assist Pope Francis with his knee problems. He says the pope is "a very nice and very stubborn patient in the sense that there are surgical procedures that he does not want" and that "we have to offer him more conservative treatments so that he will agree to them."

January 2023

In an interview published by the Associated Press on Jan. 25, Pope Francis announces that his diverticulitis has returned. He emphasizes that he is in "good health" and that, for his age, he is "normal."

February 2023

On Feb. 23 the Vatican announces that Pope Francis has a "strong cold." The pope distributes copies of his speeches at two morning appointments rather than reading them aloud as usual.

March 2023

On March 29 the Vatican announces that Pope Francis is expected to remain in a hospital in Rome for "some days" due to a respiratory infection. It had announced earlier in the day that he was in the hospital for previously scheduled medical checkups.

June 2023

Pope Francis undergoes a three-hour abdominal surgery to repair an incisional hernia on June 7.

A team of surgeons removes scar tissue and operates on a hernia in the pope's abdominal wall at the site of a previous surgical incision in Rome's Gemelli Hospital. 

The pope is discharged on June 16 after an eight-day stay in the hospital recovering from the operation.

November 2023

Pope Francis comes down with a "mild flu," according to the Vatican. The pope cancels his scheduled meetings and goes to the hospital on Nov. 25 for precautionary testing.

The CT scan at the hospital rules out pneumonia but shows that the pope has lung inflammation that is "causing some breathing difficulties," Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni tells journalists on Nov. 27.

The pope is treated with antibiotics intravenously as he recovers. A bandage holding in place a cannula for intravenous treatment can be seen on the pope's right hand as he gives the Angelus blessing from his residence, the Casa Santa Marta, rather than from the usual window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square. 

"Today I cannot appear at the window because I have this problem of inflammation of the lungs," the pope says in the Angelus broadcast on Nov. 26.

Pope Francis feels well enough to keep his scheduled appointment with the president of Paraguay the following day. The Vatican releases photos of the pope's meeting with the Paraguayan president showing the pope smiling and using a cane to walk.

December 2024

According to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, Pope Francis hit his chin on a bedside table on the morning of Dec. 6, causing a large hematoma on the lower right side of his cheek. Despite the visible bruising, he continues with his scheduled appearances, including the consistory for the creation of new cardinals the following day.

The pope is also sick with a cold right before Christmas. At Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Dec. 24, he is seen wearing what appears to be hearing devices.

January 2025

The Vatican says on Jan. 16 that Pope Francis suffered a "contusion" on his right forearm after falling at his residence that morning. Photos from his scheduled audiences show his arm tied up in a white sling.

While the arm was not fractured in the accident, it is braced "as a precautionary measure," the brief communication says.

February 2025

The Vatican says on Feb. 14 that Pope Francis is being hospitalized to undergo "diagnostic testing" and treatment for bronchitis, and his audiences are canceled for the next three days.

The pope is admitted to Rome's Gemelli Hospital over a week after he first announced he was ill.

This story was first published May 21, 2022, and was last updated Feb. 14, 2025.

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Vatican City, Feb 14, 2025 / 06:05 am (CNA).

Pope Francis was admitted to Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Friday to undergo testing and treatment for bronchitis, the Vatican said.

The 88-year-old pope was hospitalized in the late morning on Feb. 14, following meetings with a number of people, including the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico.

"This morning, at the end of his audiences, Pope Francis will be admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Hospital for some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue treatment for bronchitis, that is still ongoing, in a hospital setting," the Holy See Press Office said in a message sent shortly before 11:00 a.m.

Pope Francis has been sick with bronchitis for over a week. On Feb. 6, the Vatican announced the pope would hold most of his meetings that day and the following days in rooms at his Vatican residence in order to rest more.

Despite the illness, which has largely prevented the pontiff from reading his own speeches and homilies, Francis presided at a jubilee Mass for members of the police and armed forces in St. Peter's Square on Feb. 9 and participated in his weekly general audience on Wednesday.

Pope Francis was also hospitalized for a respiratory infection in March 2023, and canceled a November 2023 trip to Dubai due to a "very acute infectious bronchitis." 

The pope, who has been suffering from visible breathlessness during recent meetings, has more and more frequently declined to read his prepared remarks to audiences or opted to have the remarks read by a priest aide.

He has faced several health challenges in recent years, including knee problems requiring a wheelchair, respiratory infections, and a fall resulting in a forearm contusion.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 13, 2025 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's executive order barring transgender medical surgeries and interventions for individuals under the age of 19. 

The move comes after a group of seven families with transgender-identifying children filed a lawsuit challenging the executive order earlier this month.

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Judge Brendan Hurson granted the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order on Thursday following a hearing for the case in a federal court in Baltimore.

According to the Washington Post, Hurson reportedly described young people who identify as transgender as "a population with an extremely higher rate for suicide, poverty, unemployment, [and] drug addiction" during the hearing and called the executive order's imperative to immediately end transgender medical interventions for them "horribly dangerous."

The temporary block will remain in effect for two weeks, though according to an NBC News report, the plaintiffs' attorneys are planning to ask for a preliminary injunction before the time is up on the restraining order.

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CNA Staff, Feb 13, 2025 / 15:40 pm (CNA).

Local Democratic officials in Illinois are leading an effort to remove from government buildings the name of Henry J. Hyde, the late Republican congressman who lent his name to a significant pro-life federal policy that prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for most elective abortions.

The Democratic-controlled board of DuPage County, a wealthy suburban jurisdiction just west of Chicago, voted 10-5 earlier this week to remove Hyde's name from the county courthouse and related offices in Wheaton because of Hyde's opposition to abortion.

The courthouse will now be known as the DuPage County Judicial Office Facility, the Chicago Tribune reported.

"This resolution reinforces the notion that the buildings on this campus support the rights of all people to receive the services they need. I believe our actions should reflect our values," board chair Deb Conroy, a Democrat, said.

The "Hyde Amendment" prohibits the use of Medicaid taxpayer funds for most elective abortions but includes exceptions for cases involving rape, incest, or a maternal mortality risk.

Congress first enacted the amendment championed by Hyde in 1976, shortly after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide until the Supreme Court overturned it in 2022.

Since the policy is not permanent law, it must be attached to individual appropriations bills as a rider, specifying that the health care funding therein cannot be used for elective abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake. 

Who was Henry Hyde?

Hyde, who died in 2007, represented parts of DuPage County in the U.S. House of Representatives beginning in 1975. He was a Catholic, and Pope Benedict XVI in 2006 named him a knight of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great, an honor the pope bestows to recognize merit and service. 

The move by the DuPage County Board provoked a variety of reactions after it was publicized, with many commentators calling it a mistake, including Democratic strategist David Axelrod, who called it a "regrettable move."

Hyde's son, Anthony, told "EWTN News Nightly" this week that he and his family had heard "rumblings" for the last couple of years about lawmakers wanting to remove his father's name, an action he called "part of the cancel culture."

"My father was far more than just a one-issue politician. My father did a lot of great things for DuPage County ... my father was also somebody who helped families. He supported tax breaks for low-income families and for children. He was a strong proponent of adoption services as an alternative to abortion," Anthony Hyde said. 

"He understood that you can't care for the unborn child only. You certainly need to care for the unborn child, but after nine months you just can't walk away and say, 'Well, you're on your own.'"

Though the provision enjoyed bipartisan support in the past, many pro-abortion advocates and Democratic lawmakers have voiced opposition to the Hyde Amendment in recent years.

Former President Joe Biden, a supporter of legal abortion, repeatedly excluded the Hyde Amendment from his budget requests despite supporting the amendment years ago as a senator. 

In contrast, President Donald Trump on Jan. 25 issued an executive order promoting the reinstatement of policies like the Hyde Amendment and the Mexico City policy — which prohibits overseas abortion funding — reversing actions taken by Biden during his term in office.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 13, 2025 / 17:15 pm (CNA).

The Catholic University of America announced that it has earned the R1 designation for institutes with the "highest levels of research activity," according to Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education, which grants the status. 

"Being named an R1 institution affirms what we have long known: That intellectual discovery and a commitment to Catholic identity are mutually supportive," Catholic University President Peter Kilpatrick said.

Fewer than 5% of universities nationwide have been recognized as R1 institutions. To receive the designation, a university must spend at least $50 million on research and grants and award at least 70 research doctorates yearly.

Catholic University surpassed the goal by granting 94 research doctorates in one year. 

The college is carrying out initiatives in multiple fields including suicide prevention, vaccine delivery, technology for stroke survivors, and containment of nuclear waste, and it holds a partnership with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

"Since our founding, we have seen the pursuit of truth through research as a sacred duty. Today, this approach continues to drive our private and public partnerships, and our groundbreaking work in the sciences, the social sciences, the arts and humanities, law, philosophy, and theology," Kilpatrick said. 

The Catholic University of America, which was the first Catholic research university in the nation, is now one of seven Catholic higher education institutions to receive the elite title. 

"Our commitment to academic excellence and our Catholic identity set us apart in the research landscape. We are proud to be one of a small number of Catholic institutions to have achieved R1 status," said H. Joseph Yost, senior vice provost of research.  

"There's a false narrative out there that you can't be a research university and be faithfully Catholic. That's simply not true, and we're proving it," Yost said.

The Washington, D.C.-based college is now one of five R1 institutions in the city, helping to mark the nation's capital as a research hub. 

"R1 status recognizes the volume and breadth of the serious research we do here, and points to the discoveries and breakthroughs we make in service to our world," said Catholic University Executive Vice President and Provost Aaron Dominguez.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 13, 2025 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's executive order barring transgender medical surgeries and interventions for individuals under the age of 19. 

The move comes after a group of seven families with transgender-identifying children filed a lawsuit challenging the executive order earlier this month.

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Judge Brendan Hurson granted the plaintiffs a temporary restraining order on Thursday following a hearing for the case in a federal court in Baltimore.

According to the Washington Post, Hurson reportedly described young people who identify as transgender as "a population with an extremely higher rate for suicide, poverty, unemployment, [and] drug addiction" during the hearing and called the executive order's imperative to immediately end transgender medical interventions for them "horribly dangerous."

The temporary block will remain in effect for two weeks, though according to an NBC News report, the plaintiffs' attorneys are planning to ask for a preliminary injunction before the time is up on the restraining order.

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CNA Staff, Feb 13, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

In a recent letter to the U.S. bishops in which he expressed concern over President Donald Trump's "program of mass deportations," Pope Francis also appeared to criticize Vice President JD Vance's use of the Catholic term "ordo amoris" in the context of the present debate over immigration.

Vance, a Catholic, had in a late January interview invoked an "old school … Christian concept" he later identified as the "ordo amoris," which he said teaches that one's "compassion belongs first" to one's family and fellow citizens, "and then after that" to the rest of the world.

"[Y]ou love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world," Vance said.

Writing to the U.S. bishops on the topic of migration, the pope wrote Feb. 10 that "an authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized," which he said "does not impede the development of a policy that regulates orderly and legal migration."

However, "this development cannot come about through the privilege of some and the sacrifice of others," Pope Francis said. 

"Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups," the pope wrote. 

"In other words: The human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings! The human person is a subject with dignity who, through the constitutive relationship with all, especially with the poorest, can gradually mature in his identity and vocation," he continued. 

"The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the 'good Samaritan' (cf. Lk 10:25-37), that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception."

Francis in his letter proposed that a "rightly-formed conscience" would disagree with associating the illegal status of some migrants with criminality, while at the same time he affirmed a nation's right to defend itself from people who have committed violent or serious crimes.

"That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution, or serious deterioration of the environment damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness," the pope continued.

"I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of goodwill, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters. With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together, to avoid walls of ignominy and to learn to give our lives as Jesus Christ gave his for the salvation of all."

What is the 'ordo amoris'?

Ordo amoris, often rendered "rightly-ordered love," is a well-established principle considered evident through both revelation and reason, Dominican Father Pius Pietrzyk told CNA earlier this month. That said, while the concept is well established, its practical application can be complex, and there can be legitimate disagreement on specifics. 

St. Augustine first introduced the term, explaining that a person living a just and holy life is one who appropriately directs his or her affections: not loving what should not be loved, loving what ought to be loved, and ensuring the proper degree of love is given to each thing or person. 

St. Thomas Aquinas built upon Augustine's work centuries later, writing that there must be a specific "order in things loved out of charity." In this "ordo caritatis," according to Aquinas, God should be loved first and foremost, followed by oneself, and then one's neighbors, with a more intense affection for those more closely related, such as family.

While acknowledging that certain relationships carry more immediate obligations — for instance, a married person has a greater responsibility to care for their spouse and children before attending to the needs of others — Aquinas' approach requires taking into account certain situational difficulties and urgent needs, especially the greater need of an individual in the moment.

"[W]e ought in preference to bestow on each one such benefits as pertain to the matter in which, speaking simply, he is most closely connected with us," Aquinas writes in the "Summa Theologica."

"And yet this may vary according to the various requirements of time, place, or matter in hand: Because in certain cases one ought, for instance, to succor a stranger, in extreme necessity, rather than one's own father, if he is not in such urgent need."

'A closing of the heart'

Vance's mention of the "ordo amoris" as a defense of Trump's widely criticized immigration policies sparked a worldwide debate, with some Catholic figures criticizing the vice president's understanding and use of the concept and others, including several Catholic theologians and philosophers, expressing concurrence and appreciation.

Writing at the National Catholic Register, commentator Father Raymond de Souza opined that Pope Francis, far from advocating open borders, rather condemns "a closing of the heart to immigrants, a denigration of their dignity and the political exploitation of their plight."

"[T]he conflict between the Holy Father and Vance is likely more about language than theology. It is difficult to hear in the Trump-Vance rhetoric love for the immigrant, whether properly ordered or not. Francis insists that even those refused entry, or returned, are to be treated with dignity and fit within the ordo amoris," de Souza wrote.

"The decision to address the Vance comments is likely due to his remarkably hostile accusation that the U.S. bishops' refugee programs — under contract with the U.S. government — are motivated by a desire to pad 'the bottom line.' Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York called those remarks 'scurrilous' and 'very nasty.' They also were not true," de Souza continued.

"The Holy Father likely felt it necessary to express solidarity with the American bishops."

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CNA Staff, Feb 12, 2025 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

Though not yet near pre-pandemic levels, Mass attendance numbers are on the rise in England and Wales, according to figures from the national bishops' conference. 

In 2023, an estimated nearly 555,000 people attended Sunday Mass in England and Wales, a roughly 50,000-person increase over 2022, a spokesman for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales told CNA via email. 

The spokesman described the figure as "not a full return to pre-COVID levels, but it is an improvement on recent years." He also noted that the figure may be a "slight underestimation as some parishes may not have given their figures when their diocese requested them."

Stephen Bullivant, director of the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society at St. Mary's University in Twickenham, London, told CNA he is "tentatively hopeful that this trend for modest (re)growth will continue in subsequent years."

He pointed to a 2024 article he wrote for the Tablet in which he noted that while Mass attendance in the U.K. has significantly decreased over the past several decades — leading to projections of a near-extinction of Catttholicism — such dire projections seem unlikely due to signs of growth in some areas of U.K. Catholic life. 

That said, Mass attendance stood at roughly 829,000 across England, Wales and Scotland on a "typical Sunday" in 2019, Bullivant wrote, meaning attendance still has a long way to climb before it reaches pre-pandemic levels, if ever. 

In addition, a late 2024 study showed that the sexual abuse crisis deeply affected Catholics in Britain, with a third of Mass-goers saying they have reduced their Mass attendance because of concerns about the child sexual abuse crisis.

In his article, however, Bullivant pointed to signs of renewed vigor and new growth in some areas in the Church in the U.K., such as anecdotal reports of increased attendance at Easter services and relatively large numbers of adult converts, thriving university chaplaincies, and vibrant diasporic and immigrant communities, suggesting that while secularization has deeply impacted the Church, it is unlikely to result in complete disappearance. 

"To put it frankly, rumours of the Church's death – albeit four decades hence – have been very greatly exaggerated. There's a big difference between 'not dying out' and 'bursting with new life,' however," Bullivant wrote. "British Catholicism might be the former, but that needn't mean it's anything close to the latter."

The news from the U.K. comes following recent estimates suggesting that Mass attendance numbers in the United States have recovered fully following the pandemic's disruptions — though U.S. weekly attendance still stands at only 24%. 

The new analysis by the U.S.-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) used national surveys and Google Trends data to estimate attendance, which also revealed that attendance for important holy days like Easter and Christmas has recovered from the COVID crisis.

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