Catholic News

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St. Louis, Mo., Apr 17, 2025 / 10:54 am (CNA).

Raised in a conservative Jewish household in New York, David Moss had his bar mitzvah at age 13. In his heart, though, he had lost his faith in Judaism.

What followed was a 23-year period of searching for religious truth and life's meaning, culminating in a dramatic mystical conversion experience that led Moss to embrace the Catholic faith in 1979.

Despite being a happy and committed Catholic today, Moss, 83, has not left his Jewish identity and heritage behind. He is the longtime president of the Association of Hebrew Catholics (AHC), a St. Louis-based group that seeks to provide a welcoming place for Jewish converts to Catholicism and encourage them to preserve their Jewish identity.

When he entered the Church in the 1970s, "I still had a ton to learn. I knew very little … especially how [Catholicism] connected to my Jewish origins. The going narrative was that my Judaism was finished, over," Moss told CNA.

Amid his own reading and research, Moss encountered Father Elias Friedman, a Carmelite friar and founder of the AHC, who he says helped him to understand that rather than obliterating his Jewish identity, "Catholicism is Judaism in its developed, fulfilled form."

"It's like a child that becomes an adult. The adult doesn't replace the child. The adult and the child are one reality. They're just the different phases of their existence," Moss said of his understanding of the relationship between Catholicism and Judaism.

The AHC isn't an official organ of the Church, but its ministry mirrors that of the St. James Vicariate, an association for Hebrew Catholics in the Holy Land that was founded in 1955 and is within the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, serving about a thousand Catholic faithful living in Israel who are immersed in a Hebrew cultural and linguistic environment.

After Moss took over as president of the AHC in 1993, he would often invite his Catholic friends to celebrate the Passover Seder with him and his family in his home, even once hosting Cardinal Raymond Burke, then the archbishop of St. Louis.

Moss said many "Hebrew Catholics" continue to practice aspects of their Judaism; they continue to eat the Passover Seder with their families and friends, observe Shabbat (the Sabbath), and some even continue to visit the synagogue, the place of Jewish communal prayer and learning. 

"There's nothing that we do that's in violation of anything Catholic," he stressed. "To me, [continuing to observe the traditions of Judaism] just makes Catholicism even greater, because it's all part of God's plan."

"None of the documents talk about what Jews can or can't do as Catholics," he continued. 

"So, while we're waiting for the theologians to work all that out, we're working it out on the ground, and we try to make sure that anything we do doesn't go against any established Catholic doctrine or discipline," he explained.

The Church and Judaism

The Catholic Church has, especially since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, taught the importance of the common spiritual heritage of Jews and Christians, and condemned any attempt to implicate the entire Jewish people in the death of Jesus. 

Moreover, the Church has reaffirmed that despite Christ's New Covenant being the fulfillment of the Jewish Old Covenant, the Old Covenant has never been revoked (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 121) and the Jews remain God's chosen people.

Chief among the Church's teachings regarding Judaism is Nostra Aetate, written by St. Paul VI in 1965, which addressed the Church's stance toward all non-Christian religions. In paragraph 4, the document acknowledges the "great … spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews," recommending a stance of "mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues."

Nostra Aetate also strongly articulates the Church's condemnation of hatred and violence against Jews and Judaism, noting that the Jewish people as a whole are not to be held responsible for Christ's death and decrying all "hatred, persecutions, displays of antisemitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone."

Later on, in 1985, the Congregation (now Dicastery) for Promoting Christian Unity released a document that spoke of a "permanent reality of the Jewish people." 

Drawing extensively from a 1982 speech by St. John Paul II, the document notes that Jews and Christians are "linked together at the very level of their identity"; the document said that an "awareness of the faith and religious life of the Jewish people as they are professed and practiced still today can greatly help us to understand better certain aspects of the life of the Church."

And in a 1988 document, the U.S. bishops went a step further by explicitly encouraging Catholics to reverently take part in Holocaust (Shoah) memorials and even in Passover Seders, citing the "educational and spiritual value" of doing so. 

The bishops warned, however, against attempting to "baptize" the Seder by ending it with New Testament readings about the Last Supper "or, worse, turn it into a prologue to the Eucharist."

"Such mergings distort both traditions," the bishops wrote, saying that any attempt by Christians to participate in Passover celebrations should be done to "acknowledge common roots in the history of salvation." The tradition of the Seder "truly belongs" to the Jews, however, whereas the Christian celebration of the Triduum is the appropriate "annual memorial of the events of Jesus' dying and rising."

Popular works published in recent years such as Brant Pitre's "Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist" and Scott Hahn's "The Fourth Cup" have contributed to many Catholics' understanding of the Jewish roots of the Catholic faith and the Eucharist in particular.

Lawrence Feingold, a former agnostic who converted to Catholicism in 1989 and today serves as director of theology for the AHC, told EWTN's "The Journey Home" in 2019 that he was estranged from his Jewish upbringing for many years; only after he became Catholic did he begin to connect back to his Jewish faith and become interested in preserving and practicing it.

"It's so tragic that it's so often understood as an either/or," Feingold said, referring to the way many people view Jewish and Catholic identity.

"Whereas for us [Feingold and his wife, Marsha], becoming Catholic opened up the way to the Old Testament," he continued, saying that after he and Marsha became Catholic, they lived for a time in Jerusalem to learn Hebrew, with the Church of the Holy Sepulcher — the traditional site of Jesus' resurrection — as their "home parish." Feingold said he views God's calling and preparation of the Jewish people the work of "the ultimate artist."

"You can't do the perfect thing without perfectly preparing. And the perfect thing is that God became man … and he's got to prepare for it. And he prepares it in a properly human way by calling a people in which he's going to become man, and forming that people with all of their particularity … so that he can become man in them."

Facing antisemitism

Jewish organizations have sounded the alarm in recent years over an apparent rise in antisemitic incidents and attitudes, especially since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. The American Jewish Committee, in a February report examining all of 2024, reported that 77% of American Jews say they feel less safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. following Hamas' attacks and their aftermath. 

The Catholic bishops of the United States, as a body, have condemned in recent years what they call a "reemergence of antisemitism in new forms." In a statement released before the start of the current Israel-Hamas conflict, the bishops called on Christians to join them in opposing acts of antisemitism and reminding the faithful of Christianity's shared heritage with Judaism. Individual bishops have also spoken out.

Moss commented that he has encountered antisemitic attitudes among fellow Catholics over the years, particularly from those who criticized his stance that one can be a fully observant Catholic while still practicing Jewish traditions — though rarely could any of those Catholic critics provide any official Church teaching to support their claims, Moss said.

He emphasized the need for Catholics to study the Old Testament to fully understand God's plan of salvation and address misconceptions about Jewish-Catholic identity.

"One of the things that all Catholics should do is read the Old Testament as well as the New, and get commentaries that treat the Old Testament seriously with lessons for us today, with lessons that Christ himself built on to preach his message," Moss said. 

For example, "Jesus didn't come up with a new set of Ten Commandments. They were already in existence. He didn't come up with the notions of mercy and love. They were already there in the Old Testament."

Moss, in his mid-80s, said he is on the search for his successor to lead the AHC. Meanwhile, the organization continues to grow slowly, working within the Church's framework while advocating for the recognition and integration of Jewish traditions in Catholic practice — above all, encouraging Jews who become Catholics not to lose their identity. 

After all, Moss concluded, the New Covenant is the means of salvation, but the Old Covenant has never passed away.

"[Jewish converts] can do everything a Catholic does, but they have their own traditions as well, and they shouldn't have to give them up," he said.

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CNA Staff, Apr 17, 2025 / 11:28 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:

Hundreds join St. Louis March for Life

On Saturday an estimated 700 pro-lifers marched on the Gateway Arch for the eighth annual St. Louis March for Life run by Coalition Life. 

Before marching through the streets of downtown St. Louis to the 630-foot-tall stainless steel monument, various pro-life leaders and politicians gave speeches encouraging Missourians to fight for life. 

Heavy on the minds of speakers was last November's vote to enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution, an amendment that led to the reversal of many of the state's pro-life laws.  

Reagan Barklage, the national field director of Students for Life, encouraged people to carry on "after suffering such a big blow" last November.

"Let this be the motivation to undo what has tragically happened," Barklage said.

Speakers also included Lt. Gov. Dave Wasinger; Rev. Andy Becker, manager of family ministry for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod; Mary Varni, the director of the Respect Life Apostolate of the Archdiocese of St. Louis; and Tim Jones, the former speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives.

"Together, we proclaimed the importance of defending the sanctity of life and standing for justice in our society, remembering that every person is made in the image of God, our creator," Coalition Life said in a statement.

Nebraska lawmakers debate over respectful treatment of aborted human remains

Nebraska lawmakers spent more than three hours on Monday debating whether the remains of aborted babies should be treated with dignity.

The debate took place over a bill that would require clinics to bury or cremate the remains of aborted children. That measure is currently under consideration in the Legislature. 

Proposed by state Sen. Ben Hansen, the bill would require health care facilities "to respect the dignity of aborted unborn children and dispose of their remains." The bill wouldn't require clinics to give notice to mothers about the method of disposition. It would not cover human remains from chemical abortions.

At least 15 other states have similar laws protecting the remains of unborn children who die by abortion.

Hansen this week argued that aborted human remains "are human bodies, and as such, they deserve to be treated with human respect," according to local media.

Hansen noted that in cases of miscarriages, the remains are "treated humanely and securely for public health reasons," but for abortions, "our current statute makes an exception."

An opponent of the bill, state Sen. Ashlei Spivey, maintained that the measure was "about shaming and stigmatizing care" and "removing patients' control."

"No matter what you personally believe about abortion, proposing this type of requirement without the patient having a say is wrong and insulting," Spivey claimed. 

Spivey previously filed a motion to postpone the bill indefinitely, but it failed.

Texas House approves additional $70 million to support life-affirming pregnancy centers 

The Texas Legislature is considering increasing the state fund supporting life-affirming crisis pregnancy centers by $70 million over the next two years. 

The Republican-led state House voted last week to set aside $210 million to a state fund known as the Thriving Families program to promote childbirth and fund pregnancy centers. 

If agreed upon by the state Senate and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, the spending plan would entail a $70 million increase for life-affirming pregnancy support over the next two years coming from the state's Medicaid budget.

Proponents such as state Rep. Tom Oliverson maintain that the program helps provide much-needed support for pregnant women and their children, while opponents like state Rep. Donna Howard argue that the funds should be spent on direct health care or to address maternal mortality. 

Texas state law protects the lives of all unborn children from abortion except in cases where the mother's life is at risk.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 16, 2025 / 18:36 pm (CNA).

An ecumenical Palestinian Christian organization doubled down on criticism of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) this week, accusing the body of dismissing concerns of Palestinian Christians and portraying opposition to the Israeli government as antisemitic.

The organization, Kairos Palestine, is led by Catholic Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah and is composed of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christian Palestinians. The group supports "nonviolent resistance" to Israeli policies in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which includes boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel.

"As Palestinian Christians living through one of the darkest periods in our history, we are compelled to speak the truth," Kairos Palestine's leaders wrote in an April 14 letter to the USCCB.

The dispute between the two groups is rooted in the USCCB's partnership with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to create a Catholic edition of AJC's "Translate Hate" document, which is meant to condemn antisemitism and educate Catholics on antisemitic phrases and beliefs.

Defining antisemitism

Kairos Palestine affirmed in a March 25 letter to the American bishops that "our criticisms of Israel's policies and the actions of its leaders are not directed at Jewish communities or Judaism itself," but it expressed disapproval of a few elements of the "Translate Hate" document related to Zionism and the State of Israel.

The document adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which states that manifestations of antisemitism "might include the targeting of the state of Israel" and lists as examples any claim that "the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor" and the application of "double standards" against Israel. It notes that not all criticism of Israel, however, is antisemitic.

According to the "Translate Hate" document, the IHRA definition was used because alternative definitions defend "anti-Israel and anti-Zionist expressions" as not being forms of antisemitism.

Zionism refers to the political movement founded in 1897 aimed at creating a Jewish national homeland and a Jewish state in the Holy Land; international recognition was achieved in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration, followed by the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

The "Translate Hate" document refers to anti-Zionism as "the belief that the Jewish people do not have the right to a national home in their ancestral homeland" and states that it is widely believed to be "a form of antisemitism."

Additionally, the document states that calling Zionism inherently racist is antisemitic and alleging that Zionism is a form of "settler colonialism" with the mission of "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinian people is antisemitic and "categorically false." It states that Jews are "native and indigenous to the land" and that Zionists "never had the goal of eliminating the Arab population living in the region."

In its March 25 letter to the USCCB, Kairos Palestine referenced these aspects of the "Translate Hate" document as the reasons for their objections, asserting it "dangerously equates Zionism with Judaism" and ignores "overwhelming evidence" of an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

"It equates Palestinian resistance with antisemitism, a dangerous conflation that distorts reality and undermines legitimate criticism of Israeli racist laws and policies," the Palestinian Christian group argued. "We categorically reject all forms of antisemitism, just as we reject any attempt to use this charge to justify oppression and to criminalize our legitimate struggle for our basic rights and our right for self-determination."

Kairos Palestine's letter says the USCCB "has alienated the indigenous Christians of the Holy Land, causing deep pain to a community struggling for survival" by signing onto this document and is "ignoring their unalienable rights to live in their ancestral homeland and offering the State of Israel a justification for their forced displacement."

USCCB's answer and Kairos Palestine's response

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the president of the USCCB, provided a response less than one week later on March 31, telling Kairos Palestine in a letter that the USCCB "partnered with the Jewish community … to develop a Catholic commentary on the Translate Hate educational resource authored by [AJC]" in response to rising antisemitism, the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza.

"Here in our country, there are some who stand with Jewish Israelis and others who stand with Palestinians," he continued. "Too often, people of a side or camp do not want to hear that our hearts are broken for all the lives that have been lost, all the worlds that have been destroyed. Empathy has thus become a further casualty of this war."

Broglio wrote that the USCCB is also working on a document to combat Islamophobia with Muslim partners. He added that the USCCB does not try "to speak on behalf of Palestinian Christians" but rather speaks "to and on behalf of the Catholic community in the United States."

"I know that, as Christians who have experienced great suffering yourselves, you understand the imperative to stand with all who suffer and to combat hatred wherever it is expressed," he wrote.

The letter did not directly respond to the specific objections about the definition of antisemitism or the examples that Kairos Palestine criticized.

Kairos Palestine followed up with the USCCB this week, sending another letter calling Broglio's response "unacceptable," stating that "nowhere in the bishop's letter is there any indication that the USCCB intends to 'stand with' their Palestinian siblings to prepare a document describing the extent of the suffering we are experiencing."

"We are grieved and disheartened by the complete erasure of the Palestinian Christian voice in their response," the Kairos Palestine leaders wrote.

"The Palestinian people in Gaza and in the West Bank are enduring what can only be described as a war of extermination, a genocide and ethnic cleansing," they continued. "Entire families have been annihilated. Homes, churches, and hospitals have been destroyed. Over 50,000 people, the majority of whom are women and children, have been killed. This is not a conflict between equals. It is a campaign of destruction carried out by a powerful apartheid state, supported militarily and financially by the United States and a number of European countries."

The follow-up letter accuses the Catholic Church in the United States of being "silent about this devastation" and asserts "it shares in the responsibility for our suffering." It adds: "It is not enough to condemn hate. You must also condemn the systems and powers that perpetuate injustice."

"We categorically reject the conflation of our legitimate struggle for freedom, dignity, and human rights with antisemitism," they added. "We are not anti-Jewish, anti-Judaism, or anti-Semitic. We are a people resisting occupation, apartheid, and dispossession. Equating this with hatred is both theologically and morally wrong."

CNA reached out to the USCCB for comment on Kairos Palestine's April 14 response but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Simone Rizkallah, the director of Philos Catholic at The Philos Project, told CNA the "Translate Hate" Catholic edition "is pastoral in nature and shows that the bishops are not tone deaf to the sufferings of our fathers in faith." The Philos Project is a pro-Israel nonprofit that also works to support persecuted Christians in the Middle East and "a revival of Western values rooted in the Hebraic origins of our faith."

"Antisemitism was on the rise before the war, and certainly now after the war," Rizkallah said. "In no way is protecting American Jews dismissing the right of Palestinians to live in safety and security. We are praying for our brothers and sisters in Palestine, we are praying for the release of the 59 remaining hostages and their families who recently visited the United States, the release of which would end the war immediately but which the Hamas terrorists refuse to do."

Rizkallah said the document does not dismiss "the suffering of our Palestinian brothers and sisters" and that the intended audience is "American Catholics who are picking up a dangerous anti-Jewish and antisemitic spirit."

"The aggressors in this conflict hate not only Jews and Israel, but Christians and Americans and the West," she added. "We categorically reject the conflation of fighting an American pastoral issue with the war in Israel and Gaza."

Kairos Palestine's 'open call' to the USCCB

In the April 14 letter, Kairos Palestine issued an "open call" to American bishops to "see and stand with us," adding that "we demand to be seen" and "we demand to be heard."

Kairos Palestine asked the USCCB to "recognize the suffering of Palestinian people including Palestinian Christians and publicly denounce the illegal Israeli occupation, apartheid, and genocide against our people." They also asked the bishops to urge the United States government to halt military funding for Israel "until it complies with international laws."

The Palestinian Christian organization urged the USCCB to engage with them to create a resource that "reflects the experience of Palestinian Christians under the Israeli occupation and apartheid." They also requested that the USCCB revisit Kairos Palestine's foundational document and "respond theologically and practically to our messages and calls."

Additionally, Kairos Palestine requested that the bishops meet with Palestinian Christians in Gaza or the West Bank, adding "we will be happy to be your host."

"While we are approaching Easter, we continue to hold firm to our faith and to the hope of resurrection," they added. "We call on our brothers and sisters in Christ to act now, not only in prayer, but in prophetic witness."

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 16, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts is calling on Americans to become more open about their faith as a means to "revitalizing" religious belief in the United States. 

"I think it's important, as we are on the brink of Easter during Holy Week, to encourage people of all faiths, whether they're Christians like me or Jews or Muslims, to speak about their faith," said Roberts during a Tuesday appearance on "EWTN News Nightly."

"This is an opportunity here in the United States, not just for political and policymaking success, but more importantly, for the revitalization of our faith as individuals and also as a country," he said. 

Earlier this week Roberts penned an op-ed for the Daily Signal in which the former Wyoming Catholic College president highlighted "the distinct importance that America's Founding Fathers placed on Christianity, particularly Our Lord's passion and resurrection." 

Roberts in that op-ed called for the return of religious practice to the public sphere. 

"As Christians around the country reflect on that same story this Easter, we should resolve to transform our gratitude — for the political freedoms that our Founding Fathers fought for and the spiritual freedom that Christ died for — into action," he wrote. 

On Tuesday, meanwhile, Roberts told EWTN News Capitol Hill Correspondent Erik Rosales that President Donald Trump has "done two things exceptionally well thus far."

"The first is he's been unabashed about speaking about America's religious roots," he said. "The second thing that he's done — and it's both in the State Department and across the administration and other agencies — is end the Obama-Biden-era practice of running roughshod over religious liberty."

"It's not that we want to establish one particular religion as the official one," he said. "It's that we, just as people of faith, want to be able to do more than just have private religious thoughts. We actually want to live out our faith in the public square."

Roberts insisted that for America to experience a true "cultural awakening," it must be willing to practice religion publicly. 

"That awakening is not going to come from politics and policy, it's going to come from each of us," he said. "We can make [politicians'] jobs easier as it relates to policymaking if we live out our respective faiths with zeal, with a real passion, with a persuasiveness to bring people to the truth."

Ultimately, he said, the "golden age of America" will not be ushered in merely by economic policies or by reforming Washington.

"Most importantly, it's going to be because each of us plays a role in revitalizing the religious institutions in our lives and our communities," he said.

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Vatican City, Apr 16, 2025 / 10:13 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Wednesday said the Gospel is a "message of hope" founded on the belief that God is a merciful father and not a slave master.

Using Rembrandt's oil painting "Return of the Prodigal Son" as a source of inspiration for his April 16 catechesis, the Holy Father said God's love is like that of a father who goes out in search of his lost children. 

"In this we find the heart of the Gospel of Jesus, namely God's mercy," the pope said in his written reflection on the parable of the merciful father with two sons.

"The Gospel is intended to give us a message of hope, because it tells us that wherever we are lost, and however we are lost, God always comes looking for us!" he added.

In his catechesis, the Holy Father said the eldest son who "does not share his father's joy" in the parable "represents those for whom the parable is told" — those who judge others and do not realize that they are also lost.

"He is the son who always stayed at home with his father yet was distant from him, distant in heart," he said. "This son may have wanted to leave too, but out of fear or duty he stayed there, in that relationship." 

"When you adapt unwillingly, however, you begin to harbor anger within you, and sooner or later this anger explodes," he added. "Paradoxically, it is precisely the eldest son who in the end risks being left out."

Reflecting on the situation of the younger son who "hits rock bottom" after squandering his inheritance, the pope said his father did not refuse to welcome him back home even though his son "got tired of being in a relationship that he felt was too demanding."

In his written catechesis, the Holy Father added that it was the merciful father's gratuitous love that freed his son from the "distorted belief" that he needed to earn back his father's respect or beg for his affection when he returned home.

"Only those who truly love us can free us from this false view of love," the pope said. "In the relationship with God, we have precisely this experience."

"The young man's head is shaven, like that of a penitent, but it also looks like the head of a child, because this son is being born again," the Holy Father said, commenting on Rembrandt's painting.

Asking his readers to "take a position" and ask "where am I in the story?" the pope prayed: "Let us ask God the Father for the grace that we too can find our way back home."

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Paris, France, Apr 16, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A new survey in France illuminates the surprising pathways bringing young people to the Catholic faith in unprecedented numbers at the coming Easter vigil.

The Catholic Church in France will welcome a record number of adults into the faith this weekend, with particularly strong growth in the numbers of young adults and teenagers, according to newly released statistics from the country's Conference of Bishops (CEF).

A survey of 900 French catechumens conducted by Catholic media outlets Famille Chrétienne and Aleteia has revealed that social media plays a crucial role in attracting young adults to Catholicism, with 78% saying social media played a role in the discovery or deepening of their faith, while 84% said they follow Christian content creators or "influencers."

Examples given were Dominican Father Paul-Adrien d'Hardemare, who has 481,000 subscribers on YouTube, and Le Catho de Service, which features a lay apologist named Victor who says his goal is to "motivate a generation of saints to re-evangelize France." He has more than 200,000 followers on TikTok.

However, 54% said it was a priest, a religious, or a catechist who "helped them the most in their faith journey," while 32% said it was friends.

A striking finding was that 65% said they did not grow up in a religious family, with 50% claiming they had discovered the faith on their own. Catechumens said they came to the faith initially through personal research (40%), through family (23%), or through friends (14%). About 40% said they had a "founding spiritual experience that pushed them to take their journey further," the report said.

The French bishops reported that 10,384 adults will be baptized this year on Easter Saturday evening, a 45% increase from the previous year. They will stand alongside more than 7,400 adolescents aged 11 to 17, also considerably higher than the year before.

This continues a trend of increased interest in the Catholic faith among young French people that was also seen over Easter 2024.

"These results, which further exceed the record figures collected last year, are the highest ever recorded since the CEF began this survey more than 20 years ago," said a statement from the French bishops.

It added that 13 dioceses will more than double the number of baptized adults. As well as the surge in catechumens, the CEF said there had been an increase in the number of adults who were baptized as children and are now choosing to be confirmed in the faith.

The data revealed that the trend in adult baptisms is particularly strong in women and those under 40. The conference said 42% of catechumens this year are in the 18-24 age group and nearly two-thirds of catechumens are female. 

"We can already see it as encouragement from the Lord, reminding us that he is the master of the mission; he is the one who draws us to himself, touches hearts, and reveals himself," said Archbishop Olivier de Germay of Lyon, who is also member of the Commission for Initiation and Christian Life, in a statement.

"Let us give thanks to God," he said, stressing the importance of discipleship for the new converts.  

Over the English Channel in the United Kingdom, there is also evidence of a surge of interest in Christianity in young adults and suggestions that online content might be influencing them, too. 

A recent report from the Bible Society, a charity based in England that promotes reading Scripture, found that churchgoing had increased significantly in the youngest adult age group over the past six years, with 16% of 18- to-24-year-olds saying they are monthly churchgoers compared with 19% of those over 65. That makes young adults the second most likely age group to attend church in the U.K., and the trend is particularly strong in young men. 

This year across England there were increased numbers of catechumens and candidates at the Rite of Election at the start of Lent. Anecdotally, many of these new entrants are young men, their interest sparked by social media such as content from U.S.-based Bishop Robert Barron and Father Mike Schmitz. 

Young adults in the U.K. are now twice as likely to attend Catholic churches than the Church of England, as only 20% of churchgoers identify as Anglican compared with 41% identifying as Catholic and 18% as Pentecostal, the Bible Society said.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 16, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A new initiative is trying to shift the narrative on the Catholic priesthood by shining light on stories of heroic virtue, courage, and selfless acts from modern-day priests and bishops in an effort to strengthen the appeal of the vocation.

The Philadelphia-based nonprofit International Institute for Culture (IIC) launched the first pillar of its "Shepherding Future Shepherds" program, which is the creation of ThankAPriest.com. It showcases positive stories with the hope of inspiring young Catholic men to consider vocations to the priesthood.

"By sharing stories of priestly heroism and compassion, we hope to inspire young men to recognize the priesthood as a profound and fulfilling vocation," IIC President John M. Haas said in a statement.

"Our goal is to bring to light the countless untold stories of the good and virtuous work priests do every day," he added. "This effort is critical not only to restoring confidence in the priesthood but also to inspiring future vocations."

An IIC news release notes that the number of active Catholic priests globally has dropped from about 60,000 to only 35,000 from 1970 to 2020, even though the number of Catholics has risen by 20 million people within that time frame. 

The nonprofit warned that within the next five years, some regions will only have one priest for every 6,000 Catholics.

Matthew Haas, the project director of the initiative and son of the IIC president, told CNA the drop in overall priests is further complicated by the average age of priests increasing.

"In the next 10 years, 20 years, we're going to see a dramatic dropoff of priests who are able to remain active," he said.

Our culture "is becoming more secular, just overall," he noted, but the declining trend in priests is more severe.

"It's not a 1:1 ratio that would explain the priesthood," Haas said. He argued there is a negative perception about the priesthood among many young people rooted in Church scandals but that those scandals reflect a "very small group of people — bad actors."

Haas added that a major part of the initiative is to "start changing perception" because there are "so many good priests doing noble, heroic … things."

"We're sharing all kinds of stories, but one of the things we want to make sure we're doing is there's going to be a wide representation," he added.

The heroism of Bishop Christian Carlassare

The first profile on ThankAPriest.com tells the story of Bishop Christian Carlassare, who was the bishop of the Diocese of Rumbek in South Sudan and is now the bishop of the Diocese of Bentiu in the same country.

Carlassare was shot by two unknown assailants when he was bishop-elect of Rumbek.

"Two gunmen broke into his house during the night, burst into his bedroom, and shot him several times," the profile notes. "There was speculation it was a targeted assault. Bishop Carlassare sustained numerous gunshot wounds to his legs, but miraculously none of the injuries were life threatening."

The profile shares the message to his diocese that Carlassare recorded while in the hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, in which he tells them: "I want you to be at peace, to know that I'm well here in the hospital." 

"I'm being taken care [of] and I'm improving," he said. "It will take some time for my legs to be able again to walk, but I assure you that I will be back and I will be with you. Please let us be united in prayer, let us be united with all our hearts to uphold forgiveness in our community and be able to seek for justice with the same heart of God. It is a merciful heart."

Carlassare, who is a native of Italy, spent months in his home country to rehabilitate himself before returning to serve his diocese in the East African nation. On his decision to return to the diocese, the bishop said: "I clearly could not turn my back to this call … and abandon the sheep when witnessing Christ becomes demanding."

The profile notes that Carlassare hoped his return would signal "reconciliation, forgiveness, and new beginnings," which is "a message that defines his ministry, and one he hopes to share with the divided nation."

Prior to his appointment as a bishop, Carlassare served the Church as a missionary priest with the Comboni Missionaries religious order. He served South Sudan as a missionary priest for 15 years before his appointment.

Matthew Haas told CNA there are many priests "putting their lives … at risk in some instances to serve God" and it's important to tell the stories of "these men [who] are holy and serving the Church and trying to do good things," expressing hope that "people see them as role models" and "aspire to live a life like that."

The organization is also requesting that people share stories of priests who are living heroic and virtuous lives through their vocation.

Next steps for the initiative

The launching of the website represents the first pillar of the initiative, which intends to "elevate" the priesthood within society. The other three pillars are: educate, engage, and embark.

Matthew Haas told CNA that the second pillar, "educate," will likely be launched this year and is designed to be "really reaching out, specifically to young men." This will include efforts to show people the different roles priests can have and the distinctions between priests, deacons, brothers, and monks.

"We believe God has a calling for everyone," he said. 

The third pillar, "engage," is also supposed to be launched later this year and is designed to help young men navigate the discernment process and connect them to resources to help in that decision-making process, according to Haas. 

The fourth pillar, "embark," is scheduled to begin in early 2026. This part is meant to provide the help of spiritual guidance. Haas said most men who enter the seminary "had either a spiritual director or a guide who helped them through the discernment process."

"The work we're doing now is laying the foundation for these priests who are going to be available in the next decade," Matthew Haas added.

He noted that the discernment process and the priest formation process can take up to a decade to complete, which is why it's "urgent to start now."

"It will help to reverse the trend of secularism by bringing in new and young priests to help serve our Church," he said.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 15, 2025 / 15:28 pm (CNA).

The dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his "co-president" and wife, Rosario Murillo, in Nicaragua has banned, for the third consecutive year, street processions in the country, where the Catholic Church has suffered fierce persecution from the regime for several years.

"Before, we used to go out into the streets and go around the communities, but now we don't. We have to do it inside the church, and that somewhat diminishes popular religiosity, because people liked the procession. Now, we just pray and read the Stations [of the Cross]," a parishioner named Marcos, who serves at a church in Managua, told the newspaper Confidencial.

Aurelio (first name), 35, pointed out in turn: "We already know who the plainclothes police are. There was a fair recently and we saw them there. They take photos, see who's there and what's being done. The priest must provide information."

According to Confidencial, the dictatorship is supposedly deploying 14,000 police officers to prevent processions during Holy Week in Nicaragua.

At the end of March, Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan researcher and lawyer in exile, explained that there is a "Summer 2025 Plan" for the police, which "includes police harassment and intimidation of priests" to remind them of two orders they must follow to avoid jail: "no authorization to hold processions" and "not to mention anything against the 'government' in their homilies and religious activities."

Molina is the author of the report "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church," which in its latest edition in December 2024 reported nearly 1,000 attacks by the dictatorship against the Catholic Church in the country from 2018 to 2024.

The newspaper Mosaico CSI reported in January that the police are monitoring priests, checking their cellphones, and demanding weekly reports on their activities in addition to restricting their freedom of movement. They even interrogated a schoolgirl on her way to church.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner, Molina said: "Some parishes have obtained permission, but only to hold the procession in front of them. That is, they come out, are on the street in front of the parish for a short while, and then go in procession toward the main altar. It's not that they're going to walk through all the streets, as was customary in previous years when religious freedom was respected in Nicaragua."

"Judeas [theatrical representations of the passion and death of Christ] are also being banned. In fact, the Sandinista police recently went to intimidate minors so they wouldn't participate in these activities, which are more common in the country's interior. They threatened them, telling them not to go out, that it was prohibited," Molina reported.

"The police no longer have any qualms; they enter churches armed to monitor people, to take photos and videos, and the Church continues to suffer from this siege and persecution by the dictatorship," she said.

Dictatorship powerless against the risen Christ

On Palm Sunday, Silvio Báez, a Nicaraguan bishop in exile, wrote on X that "the dictatorship of #Nicaragua has banned street processions. What they will not be able to prevent is the Crucified One from revealing his victory in every struggle for truth and justice, in every effort to defend people's dignity, and in every act of solidarity for the victims."

On April 13, Father Nils Hernández, an exiled Nicaraguan priest who works at Queen of Peace Parish in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, stated that "Jesus is going to overthrow those dictators who have stolen Nicaragua as if it were their own country estate. God sees the suffering of his people, and God does not abandon Nicaragua, even though the co-dictators [Ortega and Murillo] think they will continue to triumph."

"Despite the religious persecution launched by the Ortega regime against the Church in #Nicaragua, Catholics are attending the country's parishes en masse at the beginning of #SemanaSanta 2025 [Holy Week]," said Nicaraguan journalist Israel Espinoza, who is exiled in Spain.

"The faith of Nicaraguan Christians is worthy of admiration and solidarity," he added.

Father Edwing Román, another exiled priest, wrote on X that "in Nicaragua, nothing is normal. I know of some parishes where police remain inside the church, recording homilies, and they ask to take a picture with the priest to commit them to projecting an image, according to la Chayo [Murillo's nickname], who talks of 'love and peace.'"

New report details regime's human rights violations

On April 3, the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua published a report titled "Institutions and Individuals Responsible for the Main Patterns of Human Rights Violations and Abuses and Crimes Committed in Nicaragua Since April 2018," a 234-page document that provides information on 54 officials it holds responsible.

Félix Maradiaga, a former presidential candidate, political prisoner, and director of the Fundación Libertad, (Freedom Foundation) noted on April 10 in an interview with "EWTN Noticias," the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News, that the report details the "bloody role" of these officials, "not only in the 2018 protests but in the subsequent crackdown," and he called on the international community to support Nicaragua so that "it can at some point have a special court to prosecute these crimes."

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

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Vatican City, Apr 15, 2025 / 10:38 am (CNA).

For Holy Week, Pope Francis has delegated three cardinals to celebrate the Vatican's Holy Thursday and Good Friday liturgies as the state of the pontiff's health continues to steadily improve, the director of the Holy See Press Office said Tuesday.

The 88-year-old pope, who is recovering from a prolonged case of double pneumonia, has delegated Italian Cardinal Domenico Calcagno to celebrate the chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on the morning of Holy Thursday.

Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, will lead the Passion service in the Vatican basilica on the afternoon of Good Friday, and the same evening, the vicar general of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, will preside over the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum with meditations written by Francis.

It has not yet been decided who will celebrate the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday evening and the Easter Sunday Mass, Holy See spokesperson Matteo Bruni said Tuesday.

How much Pope Francis will participate in Holy Week and Easter liturgies at the Vatican is also unclear after the 88-year-old pontiff made a surprise appearance in St. Peter's Square during Palm Sunday Mass on April 13.

For the first time since his 39-day hospitalization earlier this year, the pope was not wearing nasal tubes for breathing help during his brief appearance at the end of the public Mass.

According to Bruni, Francis is now able to go for longer periods without supplemental oxygen, except as needed at night. The pontiff's mobility and voice are also improving, and he is holding short work meetings to discuss important Church business with the heads of Vatican dicasteries.

Pope Francis has no public schedule while convalescing from multiple respiratory infections that landed him in the hospital in February, but he has made several unexpected appearances in the last week, including a visit to pray before his favorite Marian icon, "Salus Populi Romani," at the Basilica of St. Mary Major on April 12.

The pope also surprised tourists and pilgrims in St. Peter's Basilica on April 10 when he was wheeled into the Vatican basilica wearing a white undershirt and black pants while draped in a blanket instead of being dressed in his usual white cassock and zucchetto.

Now just over three weeks since his release from hospital, the appearances mark the pope's gradual resumption of public life during a convalescence expected to last several more weeks.

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ACI Africa, Apr 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Cameroon's Diocese of Kumbo, which is part of Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, located in the country's conflict-affected northwest region has issued an "urgent alert" on a surge of human trafficking in the diocese.

In a statement shared with ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, on April 8, the coordinator of the Commission for Justice and Peace in the Cameroonian diocese said that traffickers, who are now capitalizing on the region's crises, "keep changing their strategies."

"The Justice and Peace Commission of Kumbo Diocese has been sensitizing us on issues of trafficking over the years," said Sister Minkoue Falie, a member of the Congregation de Notre-Dame.

In a statement titled "An Urgent Alert on the Situation of Human Trafficking in the Diocese of Kumbo," Falie wrote: "The ongoing crises in the two Anglophone regions have increased vulnerability, unemployment, and hardship in our communities. Traffickers are taking advantage of this, and the rate of human trafficking has drastically increased in the past years."

"We write once again to call your attention to the growing phenomenon of human trafficking taking roots in our diocese," Falie said, encouraging families whose members have fallen victim to human trafficking to report the matter "as a matter of urgency."

She continued: "Many of our sons and daughters, friends, and relatives were promised jobs in big companies and are now stranded in Togo, Nigeria, Ghana, etc., always demanding more money for one thing or another as we write."

"As a matter of urgency, we call on any family whose child or children have fallen victim to get in touch with the diocesan Justice and Peace Office as soon as possible with useful information to enable the office to respond to this worrying issue." 

Cameroon's English-speaking regions plunged into conflict in 2016 after a protest by lawyers and teachers turned violent. An armed movement of separatists claiming independence for the so-called "Republic of Ambazonia" emerged following the government's crackdown on protesters. 

School boycotts have become common in the Cameroonian region as have enforced moratoriums on public life known as "ghost towns."

According to a March report, Cameroon's crisis "has caused over 900,000 people to flee internally and 60,000 people to flee abroad."

The report indicates that "as of February 2025, more than 500,000 internally displaced people were in Anglophone-majority regions."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has reported that the Central African nation plays host to over 400,000 refugees primarily coming from the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Chad, and Niger; more than 17,000 asylum seekers; and over 1 million internally displaced persons "with an additional 658,544 returnees."

More than 3.3 million people stand in need of humanitarian aid in Cameroon.

In recent years, however, there have been reported instances of former separatist fighters laying down arms, transitioning into professional careers, and advocating for peace.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

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