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ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 21, 2024 / 18:30 pm (CNA).

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, has indicated that for now a two-state solution to end the war between Israel and Hamas in the Holy Land is "not realistic."

"My impression is that no one wants a wider conflict, but no one is able to stop it," Pizzaballa told EWTN's Colm Flynn in an exclusive interview. "Now you need something new, creative, I don't know what, but all the previous agreements, ideas, the prospective two-state solution, everything is not realistic now," the cardinal explained.

Pizzaballa said the war between Israel and Hamas that has been underway since Oct. 7, 2023, is the worst period the people of the Holy Land have experienced in the last 35 years. 

"Not only for the violence … but the proportion, the impact, also the emotional impact on the population, Israelis and Palestinians, and now in Lebanon, which is enormous," he added.

Following the Hamas incursion into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel responded with a major military operation in Gaza, which has also involved Iran and Lebanon.

Over the past year, Pope Francis has frequently called for a cease-fire and an end to the war in the Holy Land, especially after praying the Angelus on Sundays. On Oct. 17, he received a former prime minister from Israel and three top former Palestinian ministers at the Vatican, to discuss the situation.

In his interview with Flynn, Pizzaballa expressed his concern about "the language of hatred" found everywhere. "This is terrible. And my concern is not so much about the war. Wars are not eternal; they finish, like all wars, but what will be after, the consequences will be terrible."

The Church is the voice of the poor

Regarding the negotiations that must take place to achieve peace, the cardinal commented: "I don't think the Church should enter these things. The Church is better to remain outside … because if you enter, you are not free. The strength of the Church is to be a voice, the voice of the poor."

After indicating that "everyone has to do his job. I mean, politicians have to find a political perspective and religious leaders have to help people to find hope." The patriarch of Jerusalem also made clear that "peace is an attitude. It's not just an agreement."

However, Pizzaballa continued, given the current situation "it's not realistic to talk about peace. Now, what we have to first of all talk about is a cease-fire, to stop any kind of violence … to find also new leadership with vision, political vision, also religious leaders. And then you can think about a new perspective for the Middle East, not before."

On the subject of hunger as a weapon of war, the cardinal regretted what is happening in Gaza and highlighted that the aid sent by international organizations is not enough to care for 2 million people.

When asked what Christians can do outside the Holy Land, Pizzaballa responded: "Pray and support. Support the Christian community as much as they can." 

Message to Israelis and Palestinians

After emphasizing that violence is not a solution, the patriarch of Jerusalem insisted that "Palestinians and Israelis are called by God to live one close to another, not against the other. And they have to rediscover their call." 

He further underscored that "the answer to the violence and to the evil is the cross." He said "it is not impossible" to see God in the midst of all this because "the Gospel is not an idea or a narrative, it is life" and pointed to the need for everyone to "trust more in the power of grace of God."

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, Oct 21, 2024 / 07:49 am (CNA).

Pope Francis will publish the fourth encyclical of his pontificate on Thursday on "the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ."

The encyclical, titled Dilexit Nos, meaning "he has loved us," will be published Oct. 24.

The pope had announced in June that he was preparing a document on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, noting that meditating on the Lord's love can "illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal and say something meaningful to a world that seems to have lost its heart."

Pope Francis then described the document as something that "brings together the precious reflections of previous magisterial texts and a long history that goes back to the sacred Scriptures in order to re-propose today to the whole Church this devotion imbued with spiritual beauty."

"I believe it will do us great good to meditate on various aspects of the Lord's love, which can illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal and say something meaningful to a world that seems to have lost its heart," Francis said at the end of his general audience on June 5. 

The encyclical is being published amid the celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, which began on Dec. 27, 2023, and will conclude on June 27, 2025.

The Vatican will hold a livestreamed press conference on Thursday, Oct. 24, on the encyclical: "Dilexit Nos: Encyclical Letter on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ." 

Archbishop Bruno Forte, an Italian theologian and a new member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, will present the encyclical to the press together with Sister Antonella Fraaccaro, the head of the Italian religious order Discepole del Vangelo ("Disciples of the Gospel").

Dilexit Nos will be Pope Francis' fourth encyclical after Fratelli Tutti, published in 2020, Laudato Si' published in 2015, and Lumen Fidei, published in 2013.

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Lima Newsroom, Oct 21, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

"The Dark Charm of Halloween" is the title of a new book launched by the International Association of Exorcists (AIE, by its Italian acronym) and written by its vice president, Father Francesco Bamonte, along with Alberto Castaldini, spokesman for the institution.

In the online presentation of the book, which is written in question-and-answer format and now available in Italian only, Bamonte pointed out that Halloween is not "a playful and innocent celebration or a secular occasion" but that "in reality, it is the representation of a pagan religious celebration: the Samhain festival originating in the Celtic world."

At this pagan festival, "in the evenings between late October and early November, in addition to numerous magical rites, animal sacrifices were performed and, in all likelihood, even human sacrifices."

"During the process of Christianization of the British Isles," Bamonte said, "the solemnity of All Saints' Day prevailed and the community celebration retained only some of the old customs, turning toward a new perspective, from a salvific perspective." 

The priest explained that the consumerist reinterpretation of the Celtic festival in the United States emptied it of its content of faith and allowed it to once again "become rooted in magic, horror, and death, unlike Christianity," in addition to being "closely linked today to dark realities such as witchcraft and satanism."

The exorcist also highlighted that it marks, for satanists, the beginning of the Satanic Year, which makes it more dangerous. Although most of those who celebrate it "have no intention of celebrating witchcraft and the devil," they put themselves "in communion with this maleficent spiritual current" and become "more vulnerable to the ordinary and extraordinary actions" of the devil.

The priest warned that some children's websites offer links to satanism pages and noted that on Halloween there is a proliferation of "acts of blasphemy and sacrilege against the Christian faith and symbols," in addition to tragedies such as what happened in Seoul, South Korea, in 2022, when 158 people died while celebrating Halloween.

What can a Catholic do about Halloween?

The vice president of the AIE encouraged rediscovering the power of the solemnity of All Saints on Nov. 1, encouraging people to dress up as saints, promote their lives, take part in processions and involve children, including with vigils of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

"It's important to explain to children and adults — on the Sundays before Oct. 31 and, in particular, during the homily of the Mass on Oct. 31 in the evening and on Nov. 1 — the communion that unites us to all the saints and to our deceased, helping them to distinguish what is harmless from what is not," the Italian exorcist explained.

It's also important to remind everyone "how important it is for us Catholics to celebrate our brothers and sisters the saints, whose intercession can obtain for us so many graces, and to commemorate our beloved deceased, who await our prayers and with whom we hope to be united one day for eternity."

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, Oct 20, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis canonized 14 new saints on Sunday, including a father of eight and Franciscan friars killed in Syria for refusing to renounce their faith and convert to Islam.

In a Mass in St. Peter's Square on Oct. 20, the pope declared three nineteenth-century founders of religious orders and the eleven "Martyrs of Damascus" as saints to be venerated by the global Catholic Church, commending their lives of sacrifice, missionary zeal, and service to the Church.

"These new saints lived Jesus' way: service," Pope Francis said. "They made themselves servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing good, steadfast in difficulties, and generous to the end."

The newly canonized include St. Giuseppe Allamano, a diocesan priest from Italy who founded the Consolata missionary orders, and St. Marie-Léonie Paradis, a Canadian nun from Montreal known for founding an order dedicated to the service of priests.

Also among the saints are St. Elena Guerra, hailed as an "apostle of the Holy Spirit," and St. Manuel Ruiz López and his seven Franciscan companions, all martyred in Damascus in 1860 for refusing to renounce their Christian faith. 

The final three canonized are siblings, Sts. Francis, Mooti, and Raphael Massabki, lay Maronite Catholics martyred in Syria along with the Franciscans.

Thousands of pilgrims prayed the Litany of the Saints together in St. Peter's Square before Pope Francis declared the 14 as enrolled among the saints "for the honor of the Blessed Trinity,  the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian life, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul."

"We confidently ask for their intercession so that we too can follow Christ, follow him in service  and become witnesses of hope for the world," the pope said.

In his homily, Pope Francis highlighted how service embodied the lives of each of the new saints. "When we learn to serve," he said, "our every gesture of attention and care, every expression of tenderness, every work of mercy becomes a reflection of God's love. And so we continue Jesus' work in the world."

The Gospel for the Mass was chanted in Greek in addition to Latin in honor of the 11 Martyrs of Damascus. 

Father Marwan Dadas, a Franciscan friar from Jerusalem, was among those who attended the canonization. He said that the testimony of the martyrs from the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land is especially meaningful to people who are suffering due to the ongoing war and violence in the region today.

"This is a good message to say that even though we have challenges — and it seems we have death continuously —  we still have the light of God that is helping us and guiding us through these difficult periods," Dadas told CNA.

"It's an important message for me, and I hope it will be the message for all the people of the Holy Land, not only the Holy Land, but for everybody. It is a message from God saying that He is always with us."

St. Giuseppe Allamano: A missionary heart 

One of the most celebrated figures among the new saints is St. Giuseppe Allamano (1851–1926), an Italian diocesan priest who founded the Consolata Missionaries and the Consolata Missionary Sisters. Allamano, though he spent his entire life in Italy, left a global legacy by training missionaries who carried the Gospel to remote corners of Africa, Asia, and South America.

Allamano told the missionaries in the order he founded in northern Italy in 1901 that they needed to be "first saints, then missionaries."

The medical miracle that led to Allamano's canonization involved the healing of a man who was attacked by a jaguar in the Amazon rainforest. In 1996, a man named Sorino Yanomami, a member of the indigenous Yanomami tribe in the Amazon, was mauled by a jaguar and left with life-threatening injuries. 

As doctors treated his skull fractures, Consolata missionaries prayed in the hospital with a relic of Allamano, seeking his intercession. Miraculously, Yanomami recovered without any long-term damage, according to the Vatican's Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

Allamano, whose spiritual director was St. John Bosco, emphasized the importance of holiness in priestly life, telling his priests, "You must not only be holy, but extraordinarily holy." His influence has endured through the orders he founded, present today in 30 countries across the globe.

St. Marie-Léonie Paradis: "Humble among the humble"

St. Marie-Léonie Paradis (1840–1912), a Canadian religious sister, also took her place among the new saints. She founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, an order whose spirituality and charism is the support of priests through both prayer and by taking care of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry in rectories in "humble and joyful service" in imitation of "Christ the Servant."

During his homily, Pope Francis praised Paradis' faith and underlined that "those who follow Christ, if they wish to be great, must serve by learning from Him" who made himself "a servant to reach everyone with his love."

Born in the Acadian region of Quebec, Paradis also spent eight years in New York serving in the St. Vincent de Paul Orphanage in the 1860s and taught French at St. Mary's Academy in Indiana, before founding her religious order in New Brunswick, Canada.

Paradis' canonization was supported by the miraculous healing of a newborn in Canada, attributed to her intercession.

St. Elena Guerra: An "apostle of the Holy Spirit"

Among the canonized was St. Elena Guerra (1835–1914), known for her ardent devotion to the Holy Spirit. Guerra, who founded the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, was instrumental in promoting the first-ever novena to the Holy Spirit under Pope Leo XIII in 1895. Her writings and spiritual leadership inspired many, including St. Gemma Galgani, a mystic and saint who was her student. 

For much of her 20s, Guerra was bedridden with a serious illness, a challenge that turned out to be transformational for her as she dedicated herself to meditating on Scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers. She felt the call to consecrate herself to God during a pilgrimage to Rome with her father after her recovery and went on to form the religious community dedicated to education.

During her correspondence with Pope Leo XIII, Guerra composed prayers to the Holy Spirit, including a Holy Spirit Chaplet, asking the Lord to "send forth your spirit and renew the world.

"Pentecost is not over," Guerra wrote. "In fact, it is continually going on in every time and in every place, because the Holy Spirit desired to give himself to all men and all who want him can always receive him, so we do not have to envy the apostles and the first believers; we only have to dispose ourselves like them to receive him well, and he will come to us as he did to them."

The Martyrs of Damascus: Courageous witnesses of faith

The solemnity of the ceremony was heightened as Pope Francis canonized the Martyrs of Damascus, a group of 11 men killed in 1860 for refusing to renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam. The martyrs, including eight Franciscan friars and three laymen, were attacked in a church in the Christian quarter of Damascus during a wave of religious violence.

The canonized Franciscan friars include six priests and two professed religious — all missionaries from Spain except for Father Engelbert Kolland, who was from Salzburg, Austria. 

Franciscan Father Manuel Ruiz, Father Carmelo Bolta, Father Nicanor Ascanio, Father Nicolás M. Alberca y Torres, Father Pedro Soler, Kolland, Brother Francisco Pinazo Peñalver, and Brother Juan S. Fernández were all declared saints. 

The three laymen were brothers — Francis, Abdel Mooti, and Raphael Massabki — known for their deep piety and devotion to the Christian faith. Francis Massabki, the oldest of the brothers, was a father of eight children. Mooti was a father of five who visited the Church of St. Paul daily for prayer and to teach catechism lessons. The youngest brother, Raphael, was single and was known to spend long periods of time praying in the church and helping the friars.

According to witnesses, the brothers were offered the chance to live if they renounced their faith, but they refused. "We are Christians, and we want to live and die as Christians," Francis Massabki reportedly said. All 11 were brutally killed that night, some beheaded, others stabbed to death.

"They remained faithful servants," Pope Francis said. "[They] served in martyrdom and in joy." 

A global celebration 

The canonization ceremony was attended by pilgrims from around the world, including Catholics from Kenya, Canada, Uganda, Spain, Italy, and the Middle East. More than 1,000 members of the Consolata order traveled to Rome to witness the canonization of their founder.

And bagpipers from Galicia in northern Spain played traditional music at the end of the Mass to honor the Spanish Franciscans canonized among the Damascus martyrs.

"I thank all of you who have come to honor the new saints," Pope Francis said. "I greet the cardinals, the bishops, the consecrated men and women, especially the Friars Minor and the Maronite faithful, the Consolata Missionaries, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family and the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, as well as the other groups of pilgrims who have come from various places."

Pope Francis led the crowd in the Angelus prayer at the end of the Mass and asked people to pray in particular for the gift of peace for "populations who are suffering as a result of war – tormented Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, tormented Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and all the others."

The pope also greeted a group of Ugandan pilgrims who traveled from Rome to mark the 60th anniversary of the canonization of the Ugandan Martyrs and urged people to pray for missionaries on World Mission Sunday. 

"Let us support, with our prayer and our aid, all the missionaries who, often at great sacrifice, bring the shining proclamation of the Gospel to every part of the world," he said.

"May the Virgin Mary help us to be like her and like the Saints courageous and joyful witnesses of the Gospel."

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Vatican City, Oct 20, 2024 / 08:30 am (CNA).

Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), has reportedly apologized for what he called a "misunderstanding" regarding his absence from an Oct. 18 meeting of synod delegates about a Vatican study group on women's roles in the Church.

Attendees confirmed to CNA over the weekend that there was significant frustration among synod delegates over both the cardinal's absence from the meeting and how the meeting itself was conducted.

More than 90 synod delegates attended the encounter expecting to engage with Cardinal Fernández and members of study group five, one of ten announced in February to examine theological questions that emerged out of the first session of the Synod on Synodality last year. 

This group is charged with exploring "some theological and canonical issues around specific ministerial forms," in particular "the question of the necessary participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church." This includes the questions surrounding the possibility of female deacons.

Instead, attendees on Friday were greeted by two officials from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith who were not members of the study group, according to sources. The officials reportedly distributed slips of paper with an email address for submitting feedback and could not answer most questions posed by delegates.

The Pillar reported that in a statement to synod participants late on Oct. 18, Cardinal Fernández said he was "sorry for the misunderstanding" and that his absence was "due not to any unwillingness, but to my objective inability to attend on the scheduled day and time."

The cardinal added that he had previously indicated two dicastery officials would attend the meeting in his place. He offered to meet with interested synod members on Oct. 21 "to listen to their reflections and receive any written documents from them."

Earlier this month, Cardinal Fernández announced that study group five had shifted its focus away from the question of women deacons as an ordained group.

On Oct. 2, the cardinal said: "Based on the analysis so far...there is still no room for a positive decision" on ordaining women deacons "understood as a degree of the sacrament of holy orders."

Fernández said the group was instead examining historical ways women have exercised authority in the Church apart from ordained ministry.

The question of women deacons has been studied and debated in recent years.

In July 2024, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, said the DDF was studying "the women's diaconate" within the context of its in-depth study of ministries.

However, Pope Francis has repeatedly reaffirmed that holy orders remain reserved for men.

In an interview published in October 2023, the pope said: "The question of whether some women in the early Church were 'deaconesses' or another kind of collaborator with the bishops is not irrelevant, because holy orders is reserved for men."

Meanwhile, Pope Francis held two private audiences over the weekend, including participating women and the synod's lay members. No details have been released about the content of these meetings.

He also received Cardinal Mario Grech and Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the relator-general, and Special Secretary Riccardo Battocchio.

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Vatican City, Oct 20, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis canonized 14 new saints on Sunday, including a father of eight and Franciscan friars killed in Syria for refusing to renounce their faith and convert to Islam.

In a Mass in St. Peter's Square on Oct. 20, the pope declared three nineteenth-century founders of religious orders and the eleven "Martyrs of Damascus" as saints to be venerated by the global Catholic Church, commending their lives of sacrifice, missionary zeal, and service to the Church.

"These new saints lived Jesus' way: service," Pope Francis said. "They made themselves servants of their brothers and sisters, creative in doing good, steadfast in difficulties, and generous to the end."

The newly canonized include St. Giuseppe Allamano, a diocesan priest from Italy who founded the Consolata missionary orders, and St. Marie-Léonie Paradis, a Canadian nun from Montreal known for founding an order dedicated to the service of priests.

Also among the saints are St. Elena Guerra, hailed as an "apostle of the Holy Spirit," and St. Manuel Ruiz López and his seven Franciscan companions, all martyred in Damascus in 1860 for refusing to renounce their Christian faith. 

The final three canonized are siblings, Sts. Francis, Mooti, and Raphael Massabki, lay Maronite Catholics martyred in Syria along with the Franciscans.

Thousands of pilgrims prayed the Litany of the Saints together in St. Peter's Square before Pope Francis declared the 14 as enrolled among the saints "for the honor of the Blessed Trinity,  the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian life, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul."

"We confidently ask for their intercession so that we too can follow Christ, follow him in service  and become witnesses of hope for the world," the pope said.

In his homily, Pope Francis highlighted how service embodied the lives of each of the new saints. "When we learn to serve," he said, "our every gesture of attention and care, every expression of tenderness, every work of mercy becomes a reflection of God's love. And so we continue Jesus' work in the world."

The Gospel for the Mass was chanted in Greek in addition to Latin in honor of the 11 Martyrs of Damascus. 

Father Marwan Dadas, a Franciscan friar from Jerusalem, was among those who attended the canonization. He said that the testimony of the martyrs from the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land is especially meaningful to people who are suffering due to the ongoing war and violence in the region today.

"This is a good message to say that even though we have challenges — and it seems we have death continuously —  we still have the light of God that is helping us and guiding us through these difficult periods," Dadas told CNA.

"It's an important message for me, and I hope it will be the message for all the people of the Holy Land, not only the Holy Land, but for everybody. It is a message from God saying that He is always with us."

St. Giuseppe Allamano: A missionary heart 

One of the most celebrated figures among the new saints is St. Giuseppe Allamano (1851–1926), an Italian diocesan priest who founded the Consolata Missionaries and the Consolata Missionary Sisters. Allamano, though he spent his entire life in Italy, left a global legacy by training missionaries who carried the Gospel to remote corners of Africa, Asia, and South America.

Allamano told the missionaries in the order he founded in northern Italy in 1901 that they needed to be "first saints, then missionaries."

The medical miracle that led to Allamano's canonization involved the healing of a man who was attacked by a jaguar in the Amazon rainforest. In 1996, a man named Sorino Yanomami, a member of the indigenous Yanomami tribe in the Amazon, was mauled by a jaguar and left with life-threatening injuries. 

As doctors treated his skull fractures, Consolata missionaries prayed in the hospital with a relic of Allamano, seeking his intercession. Miraculously, Yanomami recovered without any long-term damage, according to the Vatican's Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

Allamano, whose spiritual director was St. John Bosco, emphasized the importance of holiness in priestly life, telling his priests, "You must not only be holy, but extraordinarily holy." His influence has endured through the orders he founded, present today in 30 countries across the globe.

St. Marie-Léonie Paradis: "Humble among the humble"

St. Marie-Léonie Paradis (1840–1912), a Canadian religious sister, also took her place among the new saints. She founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, an order whose spirituality and charism is the support of priests through both prayer and by taking care of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry in rectories in "humble and joyful service" in imitation of "Christ the Servant."

During his homily, Pope Francis praised Paradis' faith and underlined that "those who follow Christ, if they wish to be great, must serve by learning from Him" who made himself "a servant to reach everyone with his love."

Born in the Acadian region of Quebec, Paradis also spent eight years in New York serving in the St. Vincent de Paul Orphanage in the 1860s and taught French at St. Mary's Academy in Indiana, before founding her religious order in New Brunswick, Canada.

Paradis' canonization was supported by the miraculous healing of a newborn in Canada, attributed to her intercession.

St. Elena Guerra: An "apostle of the Holy Spirit"

Among the canonized was St. Elena Guerra (1835–1914), known for her ardent devotion to the Holy Spirit. Guerra, who founded the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, was instrumental in promoting the first-ever novena to the Holy Spirit under Pope Leo XIII in 1895. Her writings and spiritual leadership inspired many, including St. Gemma Galgani, a mystic and saint who was her student. 

For much of her 20s, Guerra was bedridden with a serious illness, a challenge that turned out to be transformational for her as she dedicated herself to meditating on Scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers. She felt the call to consecrate herself to God during a pilgrimage to Rome with her father after her recovery and went on to form the religious community dedicated to education.

During her correspondence with Pope Leo XIII, Guerra composed prayers to the Holy Spirit, including a Holy Spirit Chaplet, asking the Lord to "send forth your spirit and renew the world.

"Pentecost is not over," Guerra wrote. "In fact, it is continually going on in every time and in every place, because the Holy Spirit desired to give himself to all men and all who want him can always receive him, so we do not have to envy the apostles and the first believers; we only have to dispose ourselves like them to receive him well, and he will come to us as he did to them."

The Martyrs of Damascus: Courageous witnesses of faith

The solemnity of the ceremony was heightened as Pope Francis canonized the Martyrs of Damascus, a group of 11 men killed in 1860 for refusing to renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam. The martyrs, including eight Franciscan friars and three laymen, were attacked in a church in the Christian quarter of Damascus during a wave of religious violence.

The canonized Franciscan friars include six priests and two professed religious — all missionaries from Spain except for Father Engelbert Kolland, who was from Salzburg, Austria. 

Franciscan Father Manuel Ruiz, Father Carmelo Bolta, Father Nicanor Ascanio, Father Nicolás M. Alberca y Torres, Father Pedro Soler, Kolland, Brother Francisco Pinazo Peñalver, and Brother Juan S. Fernández were all declared saints. 

The three laymen were brothers — Francis, Abdel Mooti, and Raphael Massabki — known for their deep piety and devotion to the Christian faith. Francis Massabki, the oldest of the brothers, was a father of eight children. Mooti was a father of five who visited the Church of St. Paul daily for prayer and to teach catechism lessons. The youngest brother, Raphael, was single and was known to spend long periods of time praying in the church and helping the friars.

According to witnesses, the brothers were offered the chance to live if they renounced their faith, but they refused. "We are Christians, and we want to live and die as Christians," Francis Massabki reportedly said. All 11 were brutally killed that night, some beheaded, others stabbed to death.

"They remained faithful servants," Pope Francis said. "[They] served in martyrdom and in joy." 

A global celebration 

The canonization ceremony was attended by pilgrims from around the world, including Catholics from Kenya, Canada, Uganda, Spain, Italy, and the Middle East. More than 1,000 members of the Consolata order traveled to Rome to witness the canonization of their founder.

And bagpipers from Galicia in northern Spain played traditional music at the end of the Mass to honor the Spanish Franciscans canonized among the Damascus martyrs.

"I thank all of you who have come to honor the new saints," Pope Francis said. "I greet the cardinals, the bishops, the consecrated men and women, especially the Friars Minor and the Maronite faithful, the Consolata Missionaries, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family and the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, as well as the other groups of pilgrims who have come from various places."

Pope Francis led the crowd in the Angelus prayer at the end of the Mass and asked people to pray in particular for the gift of peace for "populations who are suffering as a result of war – tormented Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, tormented Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and all the others."

The pope also greeted a group of Ugandan pilgrims who traveled from Rome to mark the 60th anniversary of the canonization of the Ugandan Martyrs and urged people to pray for missionaries on World Mission Sunday. 

"Let us support, with our prayer and our aid, all the missionaries who, often at great sacrifice, bring the shining proclamation of the Gospel to every part of the world," he said.

"May the Virgin Mary help us to be like her and like the Saints courageous and joyful witnesses of the Gospel."

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CNA Staff, Oct 20, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A network of 40 Jesuit Catholic schools around the U.S. is using a unique model to provide quality Catholic education and professional experience for students from low-income families.

The Cristo Rey Network implements a "Corporate Work Study" program that places students at professional jobs all summer and once a week during the school year, giving them job experiences while helping fund their education.

The network fills a gap in low-income neighborhoods where many Catholic schools have closed "because their tuition-based model has become unaffordable for families," Father Jim Gartland, SJ, Christo Rey Network's chief mission and identity officer, told CNA.

"The need for accessible Catholic education is especially urgent in low-income neighborhoods, where the Catholic Church has historically been a pillar of support," Gartland said. "While there is more funding in wealthier neighborhoods, it's vital that all students, regardless of their socioeconomic status, have access to rigorous academics and a safe environment that Catholic schools provide."

"Catholic, after all, means universal — and we're committed to educating all people with excellence," Gartland said.

A transformational education 

Jason Morrison, president of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Twin Cities in Minneapolis, said that being part of Cristo Rey Network means being part of a network that works to ensure "that every young person has access to the best education."

"We can meet students where they are so they can work to achieve college readiness by the time they graduate, giving them choices in their postsecondary future," Morrison told CNA. "They can choose their path without being forced into one because of a lack of opportunity."

Morrison called the environment at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in the Twin Cities "transformational." 

"In addition to transforming the lives of our students and their families, we are transforming the status quo in education," Morrison said.

With more than 3,000 corporate partners, the network connects students with professional industries, enabling students to get both a quality education and professional experience. Cristo Rey schools also offer college and alumni counseling for students. Cristo Rey Network's students have an 100% college acceptance rate and average daily attendance rates of 96%, which more than doubles the local districts rates, Morrison noted. 

But the social isolation and remote schooling of the COVID-19 era set many students back, and at Cristo Rey in the Twin Cities, this affected students in both academic life and in the work study program. Gartland noted that the network is facing both a challenge and an opportunity: "adapting to the post-COVID hybrid work environment." 

Morrison, along with Gartland and other network leaders, have been working to face this challenge. 

"We continue to adapt to new models while maintaining the impactful relationships our students form with employers," Gartland said. "We're constantly seeking ways to remain marketable in this changing landscape, ensuring corporate partners can continue to provide hands-on, transformative experiences for our students."

Morrison said he looks to the founder of Cristo Rey Network, Father John Foley, SJ, for inspiration. 

"Father Foley, the network's founder, has always challenged us never to be content with doing something small," Morrison said.

School leaders are "investing in intensive intervention programming," designed to help struggling students, Morrison noted. For the corporate work study program, school leaders are "looking to new markets for work for our students while rewriting the value proposition for new job types," he added.

"This is who we are as a school and a network: a community committed to a growth mindset to ensure our students achieve their God-given potential," Morrison said.

Catholic identity 

Cristo Rey Network has 40 college preparatory schools in 24 different states, totalling more than 12,300 students, Gartland told CNA. The schools work with religious sponsors ranging from the Jesuits to the Dominicans to the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, who ensure the schools "are Catholic in identity and mission, true to the religious charism of their respective order," Gartland said. 

Cristo Rey Network offers an approach that is "rooted in Catholic values, strengthens students' knowledge and life skills while helping them fully realize their dreams for the future," Gartland noted. 

"What started as a single school in 1996 in Chicago has grown to 40 across the country," Gartland said. "Our founding Midwest Jesuits never thought our first campus — Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago, a culturally rich community known for its deep Mexican heritage — would expand nationwide with more schools opening year by year."

"Our work is inspired by the belief that every student, especially those from low-income backgrounds, deserves a quality education that equips them for both college and the workforce," Gartland noted. "Cristo Rey Network was founded to support economically disadvantaged families, offering students a path to success through education, professional development through relationships with corporate partners, and supporting our alumni to and through college."

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School is faith-centered and staff incorporate daily prayer, Morrison said. 

"Our Jesuit charism permeates every aspect of Cristo Rey from morning prayer to the daily practice of the examen to grounding each year in an Ignatian theme," he said. "Our Catholic identity is a lived experience as we commit to ensuring all students graduate with the values of being open to growth, religious, intellectually competent, loving, committed to justice, and work-experienced."

"For me, faith is what called me to this ministry," Morrison continued. "A quote often attributed to St. Ignatius and St. Augustine is my guiding force: 'Pray as though everything depends upon God, and act as though everything depends upon you.'" 

When asked what inspires him at Cristo Rey, Morrison said he "is inspired daily by our students, who dedicate themselves to achieving their dreams," as well as the faculty and staff who "devote countless hours to creating an environment where all students are seen, valued, and heard." He also takes inspiration from the corporate partners "who mentor our students and provide meaningful work model leadership," as well as the generosity of the network's donors.

"While each school certainly has its own unique environment, the network creates an opportunity for us to implement what might be working at another school and apply it locally," Morrison said. "We truly can create a space where education is the great equalizer because of our ability to implement the network model within our local context."

"Cristo Rey is a place where prayers of hope and love are realized, and where each community member owns their role in taking action to achieve greatness," Morrison added.

Cristo Rey Network recently opened a Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle High School this school year, while a new Cristo Rey school in Orlando, Florida, is set to open in fall 2025. Plans for another possible Cristo Rey school in Charleston, South Carolina, are underway.

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CNA Staff, Oct 18, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

Here's a roundup of the latest developments in the U.S. regarding abortion and pro-life issues.

Young mother imprisoned for blocking abortion clinic entrance

Bevelyn Beatty Williams, a pro-life activist and mother of a toddler-aged daughter, began her three-and-a-half-year prison sentence on Wednesday after being convicted for blocking the entrance of an abortion clinic.

Williams reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Aliceville, Alabama, after the judge denied her appeal request, according to a statement she posted on Facebook on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old mom was sentenced to jail for three and a half years for taking part in a two-day pro-life protest where she blocked an entrance to a New York City Planned Parenthood in June 2020. She was convicted of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

Williams received the second-longest prison sentence given in a recent series of FACE Act convictions, according to Live Action.

"Ministry doesn't stop in jail," Williams said in her statement, adding: "I want to be with my husband and my daughter, but that's not happening right now."

Florida pro-abortion ballot measure faces legal challenges

Local pro-life activists represented by former Florida Supreme Court Justice Alan Lawson filed a lawsuit on Wednesday asking a circuit court to remove a pro-abortion ballot measure after a Florida government report found alleged "widespread petition fraud" by signature collectors.

The plaintiffs cite the Oct. 11 report by the state Office of Election Crimes and Security that claimed 16.4% of the petitions for the abortion measure should not have been validated, meaning that the amendment fell short of the number of valid signatures required.

State deputy secretary Brad McVay reported alleged illegal pay-per-petition compensation schemes, which the report says incentivizes petition collectors to forge signatures. The investigation also found that petition circulators allegedly "tampered with petition forms" and obtained other petitions by fraud.

If passed, Amendment 4 would prevent the government from restricting abortion up until the point of viability and up to birth in cases of the woman's health.

The amendment would change the Florida Constitution to include a provision reading: "No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's health care provider."

Live Action opens new advocacy organization

The pro-life group Live Action launched a new organization, Live Action Victory, last week to target Florida's Amendment 4 and Missouri's Amendment 3, two pro-abortion amendments that would permit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

Launched on Oct. 11, Live Action Victory is a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt social welfare group designed "to advocate for preborn children in the political arena."

The new organization will target misinformation about abortion ballot measures through a six-figure advertisement campaign, according to Noah Brandt, executive director of the new initiative.

Black market abortion pills

Abortion pills from Mexico and India are easily available in states where abortion is illegal or heavily regulated, a new report from a pro-life group says. 

The eight-page report by American Life League, a pro-life group based in Virginia, cited a Mexican website that mails abortion pills for free and instructs women to not tell medical staff that she took abortion pills if she needs to go to the hospital.

The report says anyone in the United States can order abortion pills online with no medical supervision and that federal agencies have shown no interest in stopping the practice.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 18, 2024 / 13:55 pm (CNA).

Former president Donald Trump and comedian Jim Gaffigan took jabs at Vice President Kamala Harris during the annual Al Smith dinner for her decision to skip the event that both major party candidates traditionally attend during presidential election years.

"My opponent feels like she does not have to be here, which is deeply disrespectful to the event and in particular to our great Catholic community," Trump said to applause from some of the guests. 

The dinner, held Thursday, Oct. 17, commemorates Al Smith, governor of New York in the 1920s and the first Catholic to be nominated for president by a major political party. Hosted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York, the $5,000-a-plate dinner was expected to raise as much as $10 million for Catholic charities in the state. 

Normally, the two candidates trade lighthearted jokes about each other and themselves. In 2016, however, Trump diverted from this precedent with harsh criticisms of his opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Harris, who was campaigning in the battleground state of Wisconsin on the day of the dinner, instead sent a prerecorded video to address the guests.

"Instead of attending tonight, [Harris is] in Michigan receiving Communion from [Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer," Trump joked, referencing a TikTok video of the Michigan governor feeding a Dorito to a podcast host, which mimics a viral trend but was interpreted by some Catholics as appearing similar to receiving holy Communion. 

Trump noted that the last major party candidate to skip the event was Walter Mondale in 1984, which he said "did not go very well for him." President Ronald Reagan won reelection that year in a landslide against Mondale, taking 49 of 50 states.

"It's been a long tradition for both Democrat and Republican candidates for president of the United States to attend this dinner, always," Trump said. "It's a rule — you've got to go to the dinner." 

"Otherwise bad things are going to happen to you from up there," the former president added and pointed upward.

Trump took repeated jabs at Harris during his speech, saying he "hoped that she would come because we can't get enough of hearing her beautiful laugh," something he has mocked in other speeches. He also said that to get Harris to attend, the archdiocese "should have told her the funds were going to bail out the looters and rioters in Minneapolis and she would have been here."

Gaffigan, the Catholic stand-up comedian and actor who hosted the event, also criticized Harris for not attending the event, saying: "Catholics will be a key demographic in every battleground state." 

"I'm sorry, why is Vice President Harris not here?" Gaffigan said. "I mean, consider this, this is a room full of Catholics and Jews in New York City. This is a layup for the Democratic nominee."

Before Trump's speech, the organizers played a video clip from Harris, which was received with a smattering of applause, some cheers, and a handful of boos. The clip included an appearance by former "Saturday Night Live" comedian Molly Shannon, who played one of her recurring fictional characters from the show, a Catholic school teenager named Mary Katherine Gallagher. 

In the clip, Harris asks the character for advice on what to speak about, to which Shannon says: "Don't say anything negative about Catholics," to which Harris responds: "I would never do that no matter where I was — that would be like criticizing Detroit in Detroit," referencing a Trump event in Detroit which the former president criticized the condition of the city.

"The Al Smith dinner provides a rare opportunity to set aside partisanship and come together to do some good by supporting the tremendous charitable work of the Catholic Church," Harris said.

"The Church cares for the sick and feeds the hungry, supports families with housing and education, and in times of disaster, provides not only essential supplies but also and so importantly, a sense of hope," she said and then quoted the Gospel of St. Luke. 

"In the spirit of tonight's dinner, let us recommit to reaching across divides, to seek understanding and common ground," Harris added. "And in honor of the great Al Smith, let us fight to build a better future with faith in God, our country, and in each other."

Trump also commended the charitable work of the Catholic Church, saying: "You're helping the poor, educating children, and supporting the vulnerable." He used some moments during the speech to make campaign pitches as well.

"You've got to get out and vote and Catholics you've got to vote for me," Trump said. "Just remember, you better remember I'm here and she's not."

Trump made some crude remarks that received mixed reactions from the crowd, including a reference to an allegation that Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, committed adultery during his first marriage. He also commented on the group called White Dudes for Harris, saying he's "not worried about them" because "their wives and their wives' lovers are all voting for me."

The former president also took repeated jabs at Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who was seated next to the podium where Trump was speaking. This included a comment alleging that Schumer pushed President Joe Biden out of the presidential race and one presumably questioning the majority leader's masculinity.

"Considering how woke your party has become, if Kamala [Harris] loses, you still have a chance to become the first woman president," Trump told Schumer, to which the Senate leader shook his head with a grin on his face.

Before the event, Trump took part in an interview on EWTN's "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo" in which the former president discussed abortion, religious freedom, and his admiration for the Catholic Church. 

Some recent polls show that Catholic voters are nearly evenly divided on the 2024 presidential election. According to a September Pew Research Center survey, about 52% of Catholics support Trump and 47% support Harris. A poll conducted by the National Catholic Reporter found that Catholics in the seven most tightly contested swing states preferred Trump 50% to Harris' 45%.

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ACI Africa, Oct 18, 2024 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

A U.K.-based human rights foundation condemned the forced conversion of Christians to Islam in Sudan following the arbitrary arrest of 12 Christian men by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) military intelligence unit.

The 12 men were part of a group of 26, most of whom are Christians and were reportedly detained at a building run by the Sudanese Church of Christ. Although 14 were released between Oct. 12 and 13, the rest are still under the detention of SAF, which has been fighting with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023.

In a report on Oct. 14, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) condemned the detention of the 12 and the forceful conversion of Christians to Islam in various Sudanese villages.

"We call on the RSF to cease its efforts at forcible conversion, which have been occurring on a widespread and systematic basis since the beginning of the ongoing conflict," CSW founding president Mervyn Thomas said.

CSW reported that the detained Christians, primarily from the Moro Nuban tribe in Sudan's South Kordofan State, have long faced both religious and ethnic discrimination. The Almudada unit of the military intelligence that is holding them is known for being notorious in the use of torture, according to the report.

According to CSW, Christians in the village of Al Thora Mobe in Gezira state are being coerced into converting to Islam by the RSF. The village, home to Christian refugees from the Nuba Mountains since 2011, has been under RSF control since December 2023.

Meanwhile, their families, including at least 25 women and 54 children, remain in a dire humanitarian situation, forced to stay in the overcrowded Sudanese Church of Christ building.

According to CSW, the men were members of the church in Al Ezba, Khartoum North. They had fled their homes along with approximately 100 other church members as fighting between SAF and RSF escalated.

These Christians sought refuge in Shendi only to face arrests that started Oct. 6, with groups detained over several days until Oct. 11. The men are said to have been subjected to harassment, physical assault, and interrogation with accusations of being RSF affiliates.

In the report, Thomas expressed concern over the situation of the detained 12, saying: "We are deeply concerned by the arrest and detention of these men, who simply sought refuge for themselves and their families, yet have been subjected to unjust detention, unwarranted assaults, and interrogation."

He called for the immediate release of those still detained and raised alarm over the conditions of their detention, which include denial of family or lawyer visits and the lack of formal charges. Thomas urged both the SAF and RSF to adhere to international humanitarian law and to respect their international obligations under the Jeddah agreement.

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

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