VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Clerical sexual abuse continues to be "a real crisis," one that the Catholic Church still must learn to deal with, particularly in improving the way it helps survivors while also ensuring the rights of the accused are respected, Pope Leo XIV said.

"It would be naive for myself or for anyone" to think that dismissing the offender and giving the victim a financial settlement completely solves a case, "as if those wounds are just going to go away because of that," the pope said in an interview for a book by Elise Allen, a journalist.

For Allen's biography, "Leo XIV: Citizen of the World, Missionary of the XXI Century," Pope Leo spoke about a range of issues, including the abuse crisis, U.S. President Donald Trump, the war in Gaza, Vatican policy toward China, the church's openness to LGBTQ Catholics, the role of women in the church, and the celebration of the pre-Vatican II Mass in Latin.

Excerpts of Allen's July 30 interview, her second interview with the pope, were published Sept. 14, but the full transcript was released Sept. 18 in conjunction with the publication of the Spanish edition of the book by Penguin Peru.

Pope Leo said that while the church has enacted tougher laws and policies to prevent and punish abuse, it cannot say that the crisis is over.

"This will continue to take time because victims must be treated with great respect and with an understanding that those who have suffered very deep wounds because of abuse sometimes carry those wounds for their entire life," he said.

At the same time, he said, there is the "complicating factor" of ensuring that the rights of the accused are respected.

"Statistics show that well over 90% of people who come forward and make accusations, they are authentically victims. They are telling the truth. They are not making this up," he said. "But there have also been proven cases of some kind of false accusation. There have been priests whose lives have been destroyed because of that."

And even when the accusation is well founded, the pope said, the accused has a right to a presumption of innocence and due process.

"But even saying that at times is cause of greater pain for the victims," Pope Leo acknowledged. 

On the topic of President Trump, Pope Leo said he had not met the president nor spoken to him, although his brother Louis has and "has been very outspoken about his political views."

Trump "at times has made clear" his concern about questions of human dignity and promoting peace, the pope said. "In those efforts I would want to support him."

"The United States is a power player on the world level, we have to recognize that," he said, but "sometimes decisions are made more based on economics than on human dignity," such as the current immigration policy, and the church will continue to challenge that approach.

Pope Leo declined to get into "some of the things that have been said about the episcopacy in the United States and the relationship between church and politics." However, he said, "the fact that I am American means, among other things, people can't say, like they did about Francis, 'He doesn't understand the United States; he just doesn't see what's going on.'"

Regarding the war in Gaza, Pope Leo told Allen that "the word genocide is being thrown around more and more. Officially, the Holy See does not believe that we can make any declaration at this time about that. There's a very technical definition about what genocide might be, but more and more people are raising the issue, including two human rights groups in Israel."

On China, and most of the other issues the pope discussed in the interview, he said he would follow the basic path laid out by Pope Francis.

"I in no way pretend to be wiser or more experienced than all those who have come before me," Pope Leo said. 

However, before becoming pope he made several visits to China, and Pope Leo said he is "in ongoing dialogue with a number of people, Chinese, on both sides of some of the issues," particularly concerning cooperating with the government so the church can operate openly while showing respect for Chinese Catholics who have undergone oppression for their refusal to join the government-controlled church.

The pope said he also intends to continue Pope Francis' welcoming approach to LGBTQ Catholics while not changing church teaching, especially the Catholic vision of marriage as being between one man and one woman committed to each other for life and open to having children.

"What I'm trying to say is what Francis said very clearly when he would say, 'todos, todos, todos.' Everyone's invited in, but I don't invite a person in because they are or are not of any specific identity. I invite a person in because they are a son or daughter of God," he said.

He said he also would "continue in the footsteps of (Pope) Francis" by appointing women to leadership roles in the church, "recognizing the gifts that women have that can contribute to the life of the church."

Studying the question of ordaining women to the diaconate will continue, he said, but he did not expect church policy to change any time soon, especially since the permanent diaconate is still not valued throughout the church. "Why would we talk about ordaining women to the diaconate if the diaconate itself is not yet properly understood and properly developed and promoted within the church?" he asked.

On continuing requests for greater access to celebrations of the pre-Vatican II Mass, Pope Leo said the Mass has been caught up in "a process of polarization -- people have used the liturgy as an excuse for advancing other topics. It's become a political tool, and that's very unfortunate."
 

WASHINGTON - The National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue (NCMD) met on Sept 8-9 to continue its multi-year study entitled, “Journeying Together.” The dialogue is staffed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. This year’s session featured presentations by Sr. Marianne Farina, CSC and Dr. Anas Malik on the ecological crisis in conjunction with the tenth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical letter on ecology, Laudato si’ and the publication of Al Mizan, the foremost Muslim statement on the environment. 

The NCMD hosted an event at The Catholic University of America with keynotes by the Most Reverend John Stowe, OFM, Conv., Bishop of Lexington, and Imam Saffet Catovic, current Muslim Chaplain at Drew University and a member of the international writing team of Al Mizan. 

Reflecting on the purpose and importance of the NCMD, Catholic Co-Chairman of NCMD, Most Reverend Elias Lorenzo, OSB, Auxiliary Bishop of Newark, stated: “The NCMD strives to foster greater understanding, mutual esteem, lasting friendship and cooperation for the promotion of greater solidarity with the human family. We pursue these goals through collaborative study, the production of educational materials, and the coordination of public events to raise awareness and provide opportunities for mutual engagement.” Similarly echoing the need for continued engagement to uphold solidarity, the Muslim Co-Chairman of the NCMD, Imam Kareem Irfan, Esq., stated: “We convened our 2025 NCMD meeting in our nation's capital with a sense of urgent concerns - not just for the environmental crisis confronting the world, and the distressing realities in the Holy Land - but also given the polarized viewpoints and lines of division fracturing our nation.” 

The work of the NCMD will continue its work of interfaith study, reflection and the production of resources on ecology and the environment as well as several new topics, including the relationship between truth and artificial intelligence, faith in a secular culture, and spiritual communion between Catholics and Muslims.

###

The J. Edgar Hoover FBI headquarters building in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 17, 2025 / 19:34 pm (CNA).

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a U.S. Senate hearing that there have been “terminations” and “resignations” of employees related to a 2023 anti-Catholic memo produced by Richmond, Virginia’s field office and the agency has made policy adjustments.

Patel made the comments during a Sept. 16 line of questioning from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who requested an update on the administration’s investigation into the memo and asked about the FBI’s efforts to combat anti-Catholic and anti-Christian violence and hate crimes.

He did not specify how many people were terminated or what their roles were in drafting the memo.

“We are doing our investigation simultaneously with Congress,” Patel said. “Just to put it in perspective, we provided 700 documents on the Richmond Catholic memo, specifically to this committee, whereas my predecessor provided 19 pages.”

The referenced 2023 memo detailed an investigation into “radical traditionalist” Catholics and purported ties to “the far-right white nationalist movement.” It suggested “opportunities for threat mitigation” through “trip wire or source development” within parishes that celebrate the Latin Mass and within “radical-traditionalist” Catholic online communities.

Immediately after the document was leaked to the public in February 2023, the FBI retracted the memo for not meeting the agency’s “exacting standards.” Although the FBI said at the time that the issue was isolated to one document in one field agency, an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee revealed coordination between multiple field offices and at least 13 documents that contained disparaging language about traditionalist Catholicism.

Under Patel’s leadership, the current FBI director told Hawley “we looked into how the source recruitment structure at the FBI was conducted during this time and we made adjustments and permanent fixes to ensure that sources are not put into houses of worship unless there is an actual ongoing criminal or international terrorism threat.”

“We will not use sources at this FBI to investigate and cull information just for the sake of culling information in houses of worship,” he said.

60 reports of anti-Catholic hate crimes under investigation

Hawley also asked Patel about threats of violence against Catholics and other Christians during the hearing, particularly in light of the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis last month.

Patel said the FBI is currently investigating 60 reports of anti-Catholic hate crimes, including ones in Kansas City, Missouri; Louisville, Kentucky; Houston; Nashville, Tennessee; and Richmond, Virginia.

“Any ideologically-based attack against any faith, as a man of faith myself, will not be tolerated,” said Patel, who is Hindu. “The full resources of the FBI [are] committed to all of it.” He said the FBI will also look into ensuring that rewards of monetary value are offered for information on “all ideologically-based attacks.”

Regarding investigations into that violence, Patel said “we follow the money.” Whether it’s an attack based on people of faith or institutions of faith, he said, “someone’s paying for it.”

“We are reverse tracing those steps, we are not stopping at the perpetrator themselves,” he added. “We are reverse engineering to hold those accountable in our investigations to who funded them and knowingly funded them. We will [take] the appropriate steps against them.”

Hawley noted that there have been hundreds of instances in which houses of worship have faced direct violent action or threats, including arson, bomb threats, and shootings. He asked Patel whether the FBI would consider designating a senior official as a liaison to houses of worship.

“You’re speaking my language,” Patel said. “The private-public sector partnership on this specific issue, just like the other ones we’ve talked about, is equally transformative to finding those involved in these criminal activities. With your assistance, I would ask you if you’re able to identify someone who’s an expert in that area, we will work with them.”

In light of last week’s assassination of Christian and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Hawley also asked Patel whether the FBI is investigating the attack as “part of this broader pattern of anti-religious, anti-Christian violence.”

“We are investigating Charlie’s assassination fully and completely and running out every lead related to any allegation of broader violence, and we’re producing results on that that we’ll disclose when appropriate,” Patel told him.

Widows Norma Pérez and Olga Pallares. / Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

Vatican City, Sep 17, 2025 / 17:19 pm (CNA).

Norma Pérez, a widow for five years, and Olga Pallares, a widow for two, have experienced the piercing visceral pain of losing a loved one.

Friends for over 30 years, they have managed to cast a light on something as dark as the death of their husbands. “I know he is with God, without suffering, in a joy that is not of this world,” said Pérez, whose grief did not completely break her; on the contrary, she said it strengthened her faith.

‘A part of him has remained with us’

Together, the two friends participated in this week’s Jubilee of Consolation in Rome to bear witness that death does not have the last word. “A part of him has remained with us. We are not completely empty. We widows are filled with the other half of the other person who has passed away,” Pérez told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, just before participating in a vigil with Pope Leo XIV.

Pérez and Pallares met at Maranatha (“the Lord is coming” in Aramaic), a group that accompanies young couples in marriage preparation courses. “We gave retreats to strengthen marriages,” Pérez explained.

Through these activities, they taught others how to live the word of God as a couple, how to pray the rosary, and how to prepare to build a solid marriage based on faith.

But eventually, they became widows. Now, they dedicate themselves to “helping others until God calls me, too,” Pérez said.

These two friends have had very different experiences in their lives of faith, as different as their marriage experiences.

Pallares met her husband as a teenager, but they came from different worlds. “They were well off, I wasn’t,” she recalled. Her husband’s family always looked down on her, she said, but the couple managed to build a strong love despite the difficulties: “We fought every day for our love.”

Rejected by her in-laws 

One of the most painful experiences they experienced was his parents’ rejection of their daughters: “They never loved my daughters and even ended up disinheriting my husband. That was terrible.”

Despite family difficulties, Pallares and her husband shared a journey of faith and service. He even served as an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist at the Avellaneda Cathedral in Argentina: “Rubén taught me that painful experiences are best navigated hand in hand with Jesus.”

In the final years of their marriage, illness entered their lives. Her husband was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which took him in just a few years: “Those were very hard times. I had to do everything: lift him, wash him, insert the IV, remove the IV… But God gave me incredible strength. I managed to lift him as if he weighed little, and he was twice my size.”

Despite the pain, faith sustained them until the end. Pallares recalled how her husband maintained a constant closeness to the Eucharist: “He was in front of Jesus 24/7 praying. He always told me: ‘We are you, Jesus, and me.’”

Pérez, on the other hand, wasn’t baptized when she met Juan. She grew up in a nonbelieving family. In fact, they were first married in a civil ceremony in 1999. But in 2008, everything changed.

Her husband, Juan, was diagnosed with prostate cancer after a biopsy and, fearful of undergoing surgery, opted for alternative and natural treatments.

“We were a couple who had been trying to have children for eight years, and the treatments weren’t successful. Then the disease hit,” she recalled.

Discovering God’s caress

Then, through suffering, she discovered God’s caress. “My faith truly began from zero. It was a total conversion, brought on by my husband’s illness,” she said in a calm voice.

It was then that they both began to draw closer to God and the Catholic community founded by Father Elías Cavero Domínguez in Argentina. “That’s when I began to understand what faith was and I was baptized. Everything changed for us: We were married in the Church in 2010. It was a profound transformation in our lives,” she said.

For the next 10 years, Juan experienced moments of relative stability. However, in 2018, the cancer had spread throughout his body, and the pain became unbearable. Despite this, they experienced what she describes as “a year of grace.”

From mid-2019 to 2020, Juan was pain free and able to spend time peacefully with his wife.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic further complicated the situation. In June 2020, they were both hospitalized, and despite health restrictions, she was able to be with him until the end. Juan passed away on Aug. 22, 2020.

“I went through everything with him and through prayer. I was even able to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet at the exact moment of his departure. It was an immense consolation; I felt the Virgin Mary was coming to get him,” she recounted with emotion.

Their participation in the Jubilee of Consolation was another step in the spiritual healing process for these two Argentinians. In Rome, surrounded by people who had also experienced loss, they were able to experience Christian consolation.

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

null / Credit: GBALLGIGGSPHOTO/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 17, 2025 / 16:49 pm (CNA).

The legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAID) in Canada has led to disproportionately high rates of premature deaths among vulnerable groups, according to a recent Cardus Health report.

Cardus Health, an organization that aims to foster a social system that supports natural death and helps institutions care for patients approaching the end of life, conducted a report to evaluate assisted suicide in Canada.

The report, “In Contrast to Carter: Assisted Dying’s Impact on Canadians with Disabilities,” examines if the expectations of MAID laid out in the British Columbia Supreme Court case, Carter v. Canada, are being met.

In 2012, the court concluded in Carter v. Canada that an appropriately safeguarded physician-assisted dying program could be adopted in Canada that would not create a “heightened risk” or an “inordinate” impact on vulnerable groups, and there would not be a disproportionate impact on their right to life.

The safeguards stated that physician-assisted suicide would primarily be for those terminally ill, physicians would carefully examine MAID requests for people with disabilities or depression, and those who felt like a burden, were socially isolated, or suffered from neurological illnesses would be protected through a scrupulous review process.

The Cardus report concluded that Canada has not upheld these expectations and the “safeguards have failed to materialize,” based on data from Health Canada; the independent monitoring authority of Quebec for end-of-life; the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario; and peer-reviewed medical studies and public reports.

In 2021, Canada expanded MAID requests to non-terminally-ill and disabled patients, which led to 223 assisted suicide deaths for non-terminally-ill persons in 2021, 463 in 2022, and 622 in 2023.

The report highlighted that from 2019 to 2023, at least 42% of all MAID deaths were people who required disability services. This included more than 1,017 people who required disability services but did not receive them.

The research found that assisted suicide deaths of those who “required disability services and received them” increased each year. In 2019, 2,223 people in this category died by assisted suicide. The number rose to 3,219 in 2020, 4,278 in 2021, 4,819 in 2022, and 5,181 in 2023.

The deaths of those who “required disability services and did not receive them” also experienced substantial increases. In 2019, 87 people in this group died by assisted suicide in Canada. By 2023, the number had risen to 432.

The report noted: “Those who died from MAID were more likely to have been living with a disability than those who did not die from MAID, even though both groups had similar medical conditions and experienced diminished capability.”

According to the report, people suffering from mental illness are also dying by assisted suicide at disproportionate rates. 

A study of assisted suicide deaths between 2016 and 2019 at a care center in Toronto found individuals requesting MAID had high rates of “psychiatric comorbidity,” meaning they had been  been diagnosed with two or more mental health disorders. Of 155 patients that requested MAID, 60 (39%) had a documented psychiatric comorbidity, most commonly depression.

According to MAID providers in 2023, almost half of the patients (45.3%) who died by assisted suicide reported they felt like a burden to family, friends, or caregivers, which was 10% higher than in 2022. In 2023, isolation and loneliness were reported as a source of suffering by 22% of MAID recipients, which was 5% higher than 2022.

The research found disproportionately high numbers of people with neurological disorders, including dementia, had died by assisted suicide between 2019 and 2023.

In 2023, almost 15% of people who died by MAID had a neurological condition as a qualifying illness. The study found that in 2019, 589 people suffering from a neurological condition died by assisted suicide, which increased to 775 in 2020, 1,249 in 2021, 1,666 in 2022, and 2,279 in 2023. 

In 2023, 241 people with dementia died by assisted suicide, and in 106 of the cases, dementia was the sole underlying condition.

According to the report, Canada will expand MAID to people with mental illness alone in 2027, which is expected to even further increase the numbers of non-terminally-ill people seeking medically-assisted death.

Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 16, 2025, expelled from the clerical state an Italian deacon who was convicted of sexual offenses against minors. / Credit: Freedom Studio/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 17, 2025 / 16:19 pm (CNA).

Italian permanent deacon Alessandro Frateschi, who was convicted of sexual offenses against minors, has been expelled from the clerical state directly by Pope Leo XIV.

The Diocese of Latina-Terracina-Sezze-Priverno announced the news Sept. 16, stating that Frateschi was notified of the decree in prison, where he is currently serving a 12-year sentence. This is the first known case of canonical sanction for abuse during the new pope’s pontificate.

Frateschi, 46, was sentenced in the Italian civil court in 2024 after being found guilty of sexually abusing five minors between 2018 and January 2023. Three of the victims were his students at a secondary school in Latina where he taught Catholic religion; another was a minor in foster care; and the fifth was the son of family friends.

“On the morning of Sept. 16, in the Latina prison, permanent deacon Alessandro Frateschi was notified of the decree of dismissal from the clerical state by direct decision of Pope Leo XIV. This decree of conviction is not appealable,” the official statement from the diocese notes.

The canonical investigation was conducted by the disciplinary section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is competent in “delicta graviora” (“more serious offenses”), including crimes against the Sixth Commandment committed by clerics with minors under 18 years of age. Due to the gravity of Frateschi’s crimes, the dicastery referred the case directly to the Holy Father, who decided to impose the severest penalty provided by canon law.

Frateschi was informed that he will no longer be able to speak in the name of the Church, preach homilies, hold any kind of position in seminaries or parishes, or teach Catholic theology or religion in academic institutions, regardless of whether they are under the Church’s authority.

The bishop of Latina, Mariano Crociata, had provisionally suspended Frateschi in January 2023, the same day he learned of the allegations. After listening to Frateschi, he accepted his resignation as religion teacher, revoked his teaching qualifications, and opened a preliminary investigation, the results of which were forwarded to Rome.

The conclusion of the process “leaves a wound in the entire diocesan community,” the statement acknowledges. “We renew our solidarity and closeness to the victims and their families.”

The diocese also reiterated its commitment to the protection of minors and vulnerable people and encouraged everyone to report any instances of abuse, even from the past, to the Interdiocesan Service for the Protection of Minors, emphasizing that this step does not replace but rather encourages recourse to the civil justice system.

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

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa visits a kindergarten in Haifa. / Credit: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 17, 2025 / 15:44 pm (CNA).

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has decided to forgive the school debts of all families in the diocese for the school years prior to the Jubilee of Hope as a gesture “to promote and demand justice, equity, and, above all, solidarity.”

The patriarchate is the Latin-rite Catholic diocese based in Jerusalem, reestablished in 1847 by Pope Pius IX. Its ecclesiastical jurisdiction encompasses Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus, serving the Latin Catholic communities present in the Holy Land and these regions of the Middle East.

In a statement, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, said the jubilee year “has taken place in a context of violence and war,” which “seems to be increasing evermore.”

The cardinal explained that under the motto “Hope Does Not Disappoint,” Catholics are called “to a special conversion of heart. We are called to return to God, to rediscover our Christian roots and the beauty of our faith.” They are also called to “heal the relationships we have wounded” and to “rediscover the joy of encountering Christ.”

Despite the perilous situation in the region, one that has had “serious consequences for the lives of all our families and institutions,” Pizzaballa said he sees it as an opportunity not to get lost “in petty and short-sighted considerations but to focus on the essentials of life in our relationship with God and in the life of the world.”

Thus in order to give expression to “this desire for change, for renewal, for a return to God and to our brothers and sisters,” the patriarchate has decided to forgive “all debts of all the families to the schools of the Latin Patriarchate for the years prior to the jubilee, that is, up to and excluding the 2024-2025 school year.”

“This was not an easy decision to make because of the costs involved. As you can imagine, the various administrative offices did not fail to raise their legitimate concerns. Nevertheless, we feel it is necessary to make this gesture and to once again trust and rely on God and his providence,” the patriarch wrote.

“We hope that this gesture will make life easier for many of our families in need and help them to regain confidence and hope,” the statement added.

Pizzaballa pointed out that the jubilee is also “a time of responsibility” and that debt forgiveness “means that everyone commits to changing their lives and taking responsibility for their obligations.”

“The forgiveness of these debts therefore does not release anyone from their responsibilities, not even families, in their obligations to schools. It is a special time that, precisely because it is so, remains a unique moment that involves us as a Church and requires everyone to take their responsibilities seriously,” the patriarch explained.

He therefore asked all school principals to “to implement and communicate this decision immediately to those concerned” and the patriarchate’s administrators to “update our books in accordance with the decision made.”

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

Nigeria is “sinking in many fronts,” the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, has said. / Credit: Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria

ACI Africa, Sep 17, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Nigeria is “sinking in many fronts,” the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) said at a recent meeting, lamenting that in addition to economic hardships Nigerians are grappling with, many communities have been thrown into perpetual mourning due to unending insecurity.

In his address at the ongoing interactive session between CBCN and the “prominent lay faithful” of Calabar ecclesiastical province, Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji said many Nigerians have been killed, and those who fled are languishing in camps where they are exposed to extreme weather conditions, often without food and water.

Acknowledging “notable progress here and there” in the country where persecution against Christians is said to be the highest globally, the archbishop of Nigeria’s Archdiocese of Owerri said: “We also lament that our beloved country Nigeria is sinking in many fronts.”

“Insecurity continues to haunt us,” he said at the nine-day event that started on Sept. 11. “Many towns and villages across the nation have become communities of fear, flight, and funerals.”

“Our fellow citizens are being daily kidnapped, extorted, dehumanized, killed, or forced to flee their ancestral homes, abandoning their sources of livelihood to seek refuge in makeshift camps, exposed to extreme weather conditions, often without food and water,” the CBCN president said.

The CBCN interaction with the faithful of Calabar ecclesiastical province is being held at the Diocesan Retreat and Youth Centre in Akwa Ibom state.

Over the years, it has been CBCN’s custom to have an interactive session with the faithful of the ecclesiastical province wherever the bishops gather for their plenary assembly.

The goal, Ugorji said in a statement shared with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, is for the bishops in Nigeria to know the people they serve “closely, to share their concerns and to acquaint them with our own concerns as shepherds of God’s flock in Nigeria.”

In his address, the archbishop expressed concern about the growing poverty in the West African nation, where he said unemployment continues to increase.

“We are deeply troubled that our fellow Nigerians have continued to groan under economic hardship and seem doomed to a life of destitution and frustration,” he said.

“We are also worried about the high rate of youth unemployment, which is driving some of our young men and women to crimes and others to migrate in search of greener pastures abroad, leading to brain drain and continuous loss of some of our best and brightest minds.”

He further lamented that Nigeria’s health sector is on its knees, noting that the death of the immediate former President Muhammadu Buhari in London exposed the gaps in the country’s health care.

Buhari’s death on July 13 away from home, Ugorji said, “raised fresh questions about our crumbling health institutions, the mass exodus of our medical professionals, the billions of naira [Nigeria’s monetary unit] spent abroad by our leaders on medical tourism, while millions of Nigerians languish at home from treatable ailments due to the miserable state of our hospitals.”

Also worrying is Nigeria’s educational institutions that the CBCN president said are facing significant challenges, including inadequate funding, “decaying infrastructure” and diminishing number of qualified teachers.

The result, he said, is a steady decline in the quality of education.

Underpinning the challenges, the archbishop said, is corruption, which he described as moral rottenness that is “spreading unchecked like a deadly cancer to all sectors of our national life, silently eating up the soul of the nation.”

The official of CBCN expressed concern that while Nigerians face serious existential threats, many politicians at the national and sub-national levels seem more preoccupied with the country’s 2027 general elections and less concerned with fulfilling their campaign promises to the electorate.

The opposition on the other hand, he said, “is busy building coalitions to clench power in 2027.”

“If this state of affairs continues, the nation will totally collapse,” Ugorji warned, calling for “a drastic change” to allow the common good to drive Nigeria’s economic, social, and cultural life.

“Who is to effect the transformation of our nation?” he posed. “We strongly believe that the lay faithful have a major and decisive role to play in this matter.”

Acknowledging that change is not easy to come about in Nigeria’s political system, the archbishop said: “If we expect much from the laity in the area of national transformation, much has to be given to them in terms of political education.”

He underlined the need for political education that encourages honest and God-fearing lay faithful to join political parties and persuade those with the talent for leadership to seek political office as a way of advancing the common good in accordance with the social teaching of the Church.

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

View of the San Diego skyline. / Credit: russellstreet, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Sep 17, 2025 / 13:19 pm (CNA).

A deacon in San Diego told parishioners last week that he will voluntarily deport himself after his residency status was revoked by the U.S. government.

The deacon reportedly made the announcement at St. Jude Shrine of the West during Masses on Sept. 14. Local media reported that the clergyman came to the U.S. when he was 13 and “served the St. Jude community for roughly four decades.” He will reportedly be returning to Tijuana, Mexico.

Local reports did not identify the deacon. A diocesan representative indicated to CNA that the news reports were accurate, but the diocese said it could not identify the deacon himself and that he was handling the matter privately.

Representatives at St. Jude Parish did not respond to queries regarding the announcement.

The deacon’s self-deportation comes amid a wave of heightened immigration enforcement around the country as the Trump administration works to ramp up deportations of immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

Catholic and Christian advocates have criticized the elevated enforcement. Prior to his death, Pope Francis in February told the U.S. bishops that amid the deportations, the faithful “are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa.”

In the spring, meanwhile, religious leaders including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Association of Evangelicals lamented the potential impacts of mass deportations on Christian families in the U.S.

A “significant share of the immigrants who are a part of our body are vulnerable to deportation, whether because they have no legal status or their legal protections could be withdrawn,” the leaders said. 

In some cases priests have faced deportation or loss of legal status amid changing immigration rules. In Texas, a Mexican-born Catholic priest who served in the Diocese of Laredo, Texas, for nine years left the United States last month because his application for residency was denied and his religious worker visa was expiring.

Catholic advocates have repeatedly warned that changes to U.S. visa rules have brought about a looming crisis in which many U.S.-based priests will be forced to leave their ministries, return to their home countries, and remain there for lengthy wait times.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told EWTN News in August that the Trump administration is “committed” to addressing that issue. 

“We’ll have a plan to fix it,” Rubio said. Details of that plan have yet to be released.

Pope Leo XIV addresses pilgrims at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Sept. 17, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 17, 2025 / 10:18 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday condemned the “unacceptable conditions” faced by civilians in Gaza and called for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and renewed efforts toward a negotiated diplomatic solution.

“I express my profound closeness to the Palestinian people in Gaza, who continue to live in fear and to survive in unacceptable conditions, forcibly displaced — once again — from their own lands,” the pope said at his weekly general audience. “Before God almighty, who commanded ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ and in the sight of all of human history, every person always has an inviolable dignity, to be respected and upheld.”

“I renew my appeal for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and a negotiated diplomatic solution, fully respecting international humanitarian law. I invite you all to join in my heartfelt prayer that a dawn of peace and justice may soon arise,” he added.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening before returning to the Vatican from the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo, Leo XIV said he had been in contact with Father Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest of Holy Family Parish in Gaza.

“Many have nowhere to go, and that is a great concern,” the pope said. “For now they want to stay, they are still resisting, but a real solution must be found.”

The pope also dismissed claims from Moscow that NATO had begun a war against Russia, noting Poland’s concerns about violations of its airspace. “The concern is great,” he said.

Catechesis about Holy Saturday

In his catechesis at the audience on Wednesday, part of his series on “Jesus Christ our Hope” for the Jubilee 2025, the pope reflected on the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ lay in the tomb.

“The Son of God lies in the tomb. But this ‘absence’ of his is not emptiness: It is expectation, a restrained fullness, a promise kept in the dark. It is the day of the great silence, in which the sky seems mute and the earth immobile, but it is precisely there that the deepest mystery of the Christian faith is fulfilled. It is a silence laden with meaning, like the womb of a mother who carries her unborn but already living child,” he said.

Recalling that Jesus was laid in a garden tomb, the pope said the scene recalls the lost Eden and signals a new creation: “That tomb, never used, speaks of something that has still to happen: It is a threshold, not an end.”

He explained that Holy Saturday is also a day of rest: “The Son too, after completing his work of salvation, rests. Not because he is tired, but because he loved up to the very end. There is nothing left to add. This rest is the seal on the completed task; it is the confirmation that what should have been done has truly been accomplished. It is a repose filled with the hidden presence of the Lord.”

The pope contrasted this with the demands of modern life. “We struggle to stop and rest. We live as if life were never enough. We rush to produce, to prove ourselves, to keep up. But the Gospel teaches us that knowing how to stop is an act of trust that we must learn to perform.”

“In the tomb, Jesus, the living Word of the Father, is silent. But it is precisely in that silence that the new life begins to ferment. Like a seed in the ground, like the darkness before dawn. God is not afraid of the passing time, because he is also the God of waiting. Thus, even our ‘useless’ time, that of pauses, emptiness, barren moments, can become the womb of resurrection,” he said.

The pope described Jesus in the tomb as “the meek face of a God who does not occupy all space. He is the God who lets things be done, who waits, who withdraws to leave us freedom. He is the God who trusts, even when everything seems to be over.”

“At times we seek quick answers, immediate solutions. But God works in depth, in the slow time of trust,” he added. “The Sabbath of the burial thus becomes the womb from which the strength of an invincible light, that of Easter, can spring forth.”

“Christian hope is not born in noise but in the silence of an expectation filled with love. It is not the offspring of euphoria but of trustful abandonment. The Virgin Mary teaches us this: She embodies this expectation, this trust, this hope,” he said. “When it seems to us that everything is at a standstill, that life is a blocked road, let us remember Holy Saturday. Even in the tomb, God was preparing the greatest surprise of all.”

The pope concluded that “true joy is born of indwelt expectation, of patient faith, of the hope that what has been lived in love will surely rise to eternal life.”

As is customary, Leo greeted pilgrims from his popemobile in St. Peter’s Square, where many families gathered for his blessing. The day coincided with the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine, patron saint of Leo XIV, which is a holiday in the Vatican.

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