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Pope Leo XIV gives his Sunday Angelus address from the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square on Aug. 24, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Aug 24, 2025 / 10:10 am (CNA).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked his country’s Independence Day on Sunday by posting a letter from Pope Leo XIV in which the pope assured him of prayers for Ukrainians suffering in the war and urged that “the clamor of arms may fall silent and give way to dialogue.”

“With a heart wounded by the violence that ravages your land, I address you on this day of your national feast,” the pope wrote in the letter, which Zelenskyy shared on the social media platform X on Aug. 24. The Vatican’s official media outlet, Vatican News, published an article attributing the message to Pope Leo XIV.

“I wish to assure you of my prayer for the people of Ukraine who suffer from war — especially for all those wounded in body, for those bereaved by the death of a loved one, and for those deprived of their homes,” the pope said. “May God himself console them; may he strengthen the injured and grant eternal rest to the departed.”

The pope said he was entrusting Ukraine “to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace,” and prayed that “the path to peace for the good of all” would be opened.

Zelenskyy, in his X post, thanked the pope: “I am sincerely grateful to His Holiness for his thoughtful words, prayer, and attention to the people of Ukraine amid devastating war. All of our hopes and efforts are for our nation to achieve the long-awaited peace. For good, trust, and justice to prevail. We appreciate @pontifex’s moral leadership and apostolic support.”

The papal message was one of a flurry of Independence Day letters Zelenskyy posted online from world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, King Charles III of Britain, Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter, French President Emmanuel Macron, and King Felipe VI of Spain.

Ukraine’s Independence Day, celebrated annually on Aug. 24, commemorates the country’s 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.

The pope’s message came two days after he called for a worldwide day of fasting and prayer for peace, coinciding with the Aug. 22 feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In July, Zelenskyy met Pope Leo at Castel Gandolfo, the pope’s summer residence, in their second encounter since the pope’s inauguration Mass in May. According to the Vatican, they discussed “the urgency of pursuing just and lasting paths of peace,” and Pope Leo reaffirmed his willingness to host representatives of Russia and Ukraine for possible negotiations.

null / Credit: Srdjan Randjelovic/Shutterstock

Philadelphia, Pa., Aug 24, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Nina Marie Corona thought she was just checking the box like any good cradle Catholic when she sat down in a pew over a decade ago. From her perspective at the time, she wasn’t there for anything dramatic — just the usual holy day of obligation Christmas Mass. Her heart wasn’t in it though. Addiction had crept into her family’s life, and her entire world felt like it was falling apart. So, while others sang and smiled and shook hands at the sign of peace, she wept quietly.

Alone. A stranger. In a church filled with people.

“I remember looking and thinking, you know, why does nobody know that I’m going through this?” she said. “Like, I need you people, you know? Where else do I turn?”

Already immersed in theology classes triggered by a retreat she had attended, Corona — who once ran a successful food manufacturing business — turned to an educational pursuit that sought to weave her spirituality with her social conscience.

In the years that followed, that moment of personal desperation developed into a multipronged outreach titled Afire and launched an international multimedia ministry called “We Thirst: Christian Reflections on Addiction,” which is now in university and seminary libraries, including Trinity College Dublin, and has been shown in churches across the United States and beyond.

The five-part parish-based series is part catechesis, part communal healing, blending Catholic spirituality with the biological, psychological, and social realities of addiction. People have watched it in living rooms, church halls, and classrooms. It’s been used by priests, parents, social workers, and people recovering from addiction. It has freed people to talk about addiction, to open up, to stop hiding.

“They drop the armor,” she said. “They receive the gift of courage to face reality. That’s when healing can begin.”

The way it works is simple. You watch the series as a group — maybe over five weeks, maybe as a weekend retreat, and then you talk — not about solutions or strategies at first, but about what’s real: fear, guilt, grief, love, hope. Each session incorporates comprehensive educational presentations with prayer, music for reflection, and imagery to enlighten and inspire.” On the final night of each series, attendees are encouraged to discern next steps in their own communities.

“I initially didn’t know what they should do, but over time I realized those things that were helpful to me and my family,” she explained. “So, we eventually created kits with leader and member manuals to help guide groups through a discernment process. The leader’s manual has been granted an imprimatur.”

Each parish group is given space to listen to one another, assess the specific needs in their community, and create a plan — whether that’s hosting prayer gatherings, offering support to families affected by addiction, starting recovery ministries, or assembling care packages for local recovery homes. The work is deeply local and highly personal, but its spiritual and emotional resonance is what fuels a broader growth.

Among the programs now offered by Afire Ministries are weekly Vespers via Zoom, an online Advent Prayer Calendar, and Set Hearts AFIRE — an evangelization resource designed to equip both experienced ministers and everyday Catholics to share the Gospel. The program provides everything needed to present the material, including fully developed scripts, music, media, and opportunities for personal witness.

Also forthcoming is Graced Collaboration, an innovative faith-based recovery program developed by Corona during her doctoral studies. It integrates evidence-based scientific approaches with the spiritual wisdom of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

“I can’t do this alone,” Corona said. “We need more people stepping up.”

One of the newest groups has formed at St. Isidore in Quakertown, where Sharon Butler is a parishioner. “My daughter has been battling addiction for a very long time,” she said. “My husband and I… we’ve always had each other, but I never went to anything. People would suggest Al-Anon or different groups, but I just didn’t go.”

This was different, she said. Right from the start. “It was very inspiring,” Butler said. “I couldn’t wait for the next week. Each session gave me something to think about. It all just spoke to me.”

The formula is repeated throughout Afire’s various programs, Corona said. And, she believes, God’s fingerprints are all over it.

“I didn’t know how to listen for God’s voice at first, but once I did, he didn’t stop,” she said. “I know the resistance. The shame. You think you’ve heard it all — another addiction talk, more statistics, more blame. But this is different. This is about healing hearts, not just solving problems. It’s about rediscovering our humanity and God’s love for us in the middle of pain.”

She continued: “I believe strongly that God wants to work this way through every person. So many of us are asleep. We’re distracted, numb. But if we just pause — listen — we’ll hear him. And he’ll move. That’s what happened to me. I just finally stopped long enough to listen.”

This story was first published by Catholic Philly and has been reprinted with permission. It is part of the Face of Hope, a series of stories and videos “highlighting the work of those who make the Catholic Church in Philadelphia the greatest force for good in the region.” 

Pope Leo XIV waves to the crowd during his Angelus address on Aug. 24, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Aug 24, 2025 / 08:20 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV said Sunday that Jesus calls Christians to enter through the narrow gate and challenges the presumption of those who assume they are already saved.

Speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Aug. 24, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading in which Jesus says: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able” (Lk 13:22-30).

Jesus, the pope said, “did not choose the easy path of success or power; instead, in order to save us, he loved us to the point of walking through the ‘narrow gate’ of the cross.”

There are times when following the Lord, he added, will require “making difficult and unpopular decisions, resisting our selfish inclinations, placing ourselves at the service of others, and persevering in doing what is right when the logic of evil seems to prevail.”

In his Angelus address, Pope Leo said that Jesus calls into question what he described as “the security of believers” and added that the Lord’s words about the “narrow gate” are “meant primarily to challenge the presumption of those people who think they are already saved, who perform religious acts and feel that is all that is needed.”

“Our faith is authentic when it embraces our whole life, when it becomes a criterion for our decisions, when it makes us women and men committed to doing what is right and who take risks out of love, even as Jesus did,” he said.

“Jesus is the true measure of our faith; he is the gate through which we must pass in order to be saved (cf. Jn 10:9) by experiencing his love and by working, in our daily lives, to promote justice and peace,” Leo added.

“Let us ask the Virgin Mary to help us find the courage to pass through the ‘narrow gate’ of the Gospel, so that we may open ourselves with joy to the wide embrace of God our loving Father.”

After leading the crowd in the Angelus prayer in Latin, the pope turned his thoughts to Christians suffering violence in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province.

“I express my closeness to the people of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, who have become victims of an unsecure and violent situation that continues to cause death and displacement. In asking you not to forget these brothers and sisters of ours, I invite you to pray for them, and I express my hope that the efforts of the country’s leaders will succeed in restoring security and peace in that territory,” he said.

He also renewed prayers for Ukraine, days after calling for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for peace. “Today, we join our Ukrainian brothers and sisters who, with the spiritual initiative ‘World Prayer for Ukraine,’ are asking the Lord to grant peace to their tormented country,” he said.

Earlier Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on X a letter from the pope in which Leo assured him of his prayer for the people suffering in Ukraine and that a path to peace for the good of all will be opened. 

Father Solomon Zaku, pictured on the right, is the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Nigeria and has called on the country’s government to ensure justice is applied in the trial of the suspects linked to the 2022 Pentecost Sunday attack on St. Francis Xavier Owo Catholic Parish in the Ondo Diocese, which claimed at least 50 lives. / Credit: ACI Africa

ACI Africa, Aug 24, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Nigeria, Father Solomon Zaku, has called on the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government to ensure justice is applied in the trial of the suspects linked to the 2022 Pentecost Sunday attack on St. Francis Xavier Owo Catholic Parish in the Ondo Diocese, which claimed at least 50 lives.

Speaking to ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, on Aug. 21 after the arraignment of five suspects by the Federal High Court in Abuja, Zaku cautioned against granting bail to the accused, warning that such a move would “deepen the pain of victims’ families” and weaken confidence in Nigeria’s justice system.

The five men suspected of carrying out the deadly Islamist militant attack on the Catholic parish in southwestern Nigeria were remanded in custody on Aug. 19 until a court ruling on Sept. 10 on their application for bail, Reuters reported.

The report further indicated that the suspects, who pleaded not guilty when arraigned last week, appeared in court at the start of their trial on Tuesday, seeking bail three years after their arrest.

“I thought the other time the court was saying that they found out that they are linked with ISIS and other foreign terrorist groups? Now that the law has caught up with them three years after the incident, since they are found guilty, they shouldn’t be given bail,” Zaku told ACI Africa.

The Nigerian Catholic priest emphasized that releasing the suspects would send the wrong message to grieving families and the wider Christian community.

“The families that lost their children are still grieving. To see that those who killed them are just given bail without any serious punishment will not be a good thing,” he said.

Zaku noted that investigations by the Department of State Security Service revealed links between the perpetrators and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), describing it as “a serious revelation that must not be handled with levity.” 

He added: “The persecution has been going on in Nigeria and it has not stopped people from practicing the faith. People will keep practicing the faith, but with this recent attack and the information that it is linked to ISIS, there is an indication that there is a calculated plan to eliminate Christians in this country.”

Zaku described the Owo attack as a shocking extension of terrorism to southern Nigeria. 

“Ordinarily, one would never expect that that kind of attack will even take place in Owo because Owo is in the southern part of the country where no history of insurgency can be traced,” he said. “Now the terrorism moving to the south is really telling the Christians in Nigeria that they are sitting on a time bomb.”

While underscoring the importance of prayer, he urged Christians not to limit their response to spiritual practices alone. 

“Christians must always pray, but not only pray. We also need to be very security conscious and not take things for granted,” he said.

Zaku encouraged victims’ families to draw strength from the ongoing prosecution of the suspects, reminding them that “the state has not abandoned their plight.” 

“The conviction of these people should be a source of strength to them, to tell them that they are not alone, that the government has not left them,” he said.

Zaku, who is a priest in the Maiduguri Diocese, commended security agencies for arraigning the suspects.

“I want to thank the security agencies for the work that they are doing, for arraigning these suspects, and also taking them to court. They have done well by doing that, because if they had not taken them to court, we would not have known that they are linked to ISIS,” he said.

The priest however challenged the system to go beyond arraignment, saying: “It shouldn’t just end there. The government must fight this cause to the end. Justice must be done. These people must … serve the punishment for their crimes.”

For Zaku, the Owo massacre represents not only an act of violence but also “a test of Nigeria’s commitment to justice, national security, and religious freedom.” 

He urged authorities to “find the real funders and then the international community that is supporting them,” insisting: “Justice must be served and the victims must know that their lives and sacrifices are not in vain.”

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

The statue of Blessed Carlo Acutis was installed in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mercy in the Diocese of Chascomús, Argentina, on Aug. 17, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Monignor Juan Ignacio Liébana, at the Cathedral

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 24, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Argentine Diocese of Chascomús enthroned a statue of soon-to-be-canonized Carlo Acutis in Our Lady of Mercy Cathedral on Aug. 17.

The image of the young man, whom Pope Leo XIV will proclaim a saint on Sept. 7, stands 5.5 feet tall and was donated by the Carlo Acutis Chascomús Argentina group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading the life, witness, and spirituality of the future Italian saint.

The statue was enthroned during a Mass offered in the cathedral by the diocesan bishop, Juan Ignacio Liébana. “We want Carlo to touch the hearts of young Argentines and for his witness to be a seed of faith in difficult times,” said Lía Scardigno, who promoted the project.

The enthronement of the image crowns a series of enthronements of pictures of Carlo Acutis in nearly 20 locations throughout the diocese in addition to the basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Luján, the administrative office of Argentine Catholic University, the Blessed Sacrament Basilica in Buenos Aires, parishes, hospitals, nursing homes, and rural communities.

On the eve of the enthronement, the group received a very special greeting from Antonia Salzano, Carlo Acutis’ mother, who assured them that the image “will bring many graces, and also be a sign of hope for you.”

“We are all called to be saints,” she noted. “It’s a call that God gives to all of us, but fulfilling it is not easy, but it can be done, because the Lord gives us the means through the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, which is the most supernatural presence we have on earth, which is God with us. Naturally, the highway to heaven, as Carlo said.”

In this regard, she added: “You have sacred Scripture, which is important; you have prayer, and above all, the sacraments. God, through the sacraments, gives us the grace to become holy and to win the final victory,” she emphasized, hoping “that this sign will truly be a help to you: a friend who is with you to pray, to obtain your sanctification, and above all, to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, because that is what you are.”

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

St. Joseph Cathedral in Columbus, Ohio. / Credit: LO Kin-hei/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 24, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

As federal budget cuts halt programs for people in need, Catholic Social Services (CSS) in Columbus, Ohio, is encouraging volunteers to step up and become community heroes. Modeling the good Samaritan, people are being invited to join the new “Super Neighbor” initiative to lend a hand to others in need, beginning with seniors who need help.

“You don’t have to wear a cape to show up and be a super neighbor,” president and CEO of CSS, Kelley Henderson, told CNA. As the program kicks off, the organization is calling on people who want to “make an impact by being present, showing up, and serving with the love of Christ.”

CSS is a Catholic Charities member agency for the Diocese of Columbus. It works with 168 other agencies across the country to support the needs of the local ordinary but also works on national policy issues, national funding, and advocacy work.

In the Columbus Diocese, CSS serves communities within 23 counties in Central and Southern Ohio through “a myriad of programs that operate to address acute and crisis needs, whether they’re of an older adult, a family with children, or a person living with a disability,” Henderson explained.

The organization’s work is “grounded in the good Samaritan parable in Luke 10” that reminds us that everyone is our neighbor. “It’s a core part of our Catholic social teaching, is this solidarity.”

‘Neighbors serving neighbors’

CSS programs stem from its motto: “Neighbors Serving Neighbors.” The Super Neighbor initiative was formed out of a belief that volunteerism is “an easy, structured way for people in a local parish to get involved and serve,” Henderson said. 

Super Neighbor was designed “to pair a volunteer from the parish with an older adult who might be living alone. They’ll go by and visit with them, play cards, go get a haircut, or meal plan … It’s really designed to go deep and build relationships with people.”

“Social isolation is a real challenge in our community, and as Catholics, we’re called to respond to the signs of our time, and isolation is a major sign,” Henderson said. “We really see that it not only has negative health impacts on people who are isolated, but it really is not being a good neighbor. We reach out and spend time with people.”

The initiative follows other senior-oriented programs that CSS has offered including the Senior Companion and Foster Grandparent programs, which were both catered to community relationships with seniors.

Both programs were mostly federally funded for the last 30 years, primarily through the AmeriCorps agency. The funds helped “lower-income seniors receive a little support money and travel reimbursement to be able to go out and spend time with others in the community.” But as federal funding cuts have been made across the nation, the programs are unable to operate as usual.

“Regardless, we’re committed to serving,” Henderson said. “We’ll find new innovative ways to serve, and Super Neighborhood is one of them.” 

“I really see beauty and value in volunteerism. I think volunteers can not only see the face of Christ in those we serve but be the face of Christ. And be the hands and feet of who we’re called to be in the community.”

What is unique about Super Neighbor is it doesn’t just have one type of volunteer. The program opens the doors for all kinds of people to serve and be served.

Historically, volunteers are people who have extra time. Henderson explained that it tends to be people who have retired, those winding down their careers, or parents with children in school, but CSS and Super Neighbor bring in an even larger demographic.

“We’re beginning to not only see the folks that have that discretionary time, but we’re seeing people make time available,” Henderson said. “One of our local Catholic high schools started a Catholic Social Services Club, and the kids are making time to volunteer.”

Employers around the diocese are even beginning to offer volunteer time off, including CSS, which gives its staff allotted time to serve the community. “They can take two hours a quarter to volunteer at a place of their choosing,” Henderson said. 

“The culture of giving back is really inspiring to see right now. And we’re using that as an opportunity to be that resource for people.”

The future of ‘Super Neighbor’ 

Although it is a new initiative, three parishes have committed to be a part of the effort. There are already 60 volunteers that have signed up who will begin the program with home visits with seniors in late September.

While prioritizing seniors, CSS is working to expand Super Neighbor to reach even more groups of people. It is working to place volunteers in local schools to be “homework helpers or tutors,” to connect with younger generations.

“My hope is by the Advent season, we have a couple hundred super neighbors signed up, which is really important because the impetus of the launch of this program was to have a hope-filled response to some of the cuts that we’re facing federally.”

Despite “a tightening fiscal environment … it’s an opportunity for the Church to show up,” Henderson said. “The Church is generally the one that shows up first.”

Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska in St. Peter's Square, a day before the canonization Mass of St. John Henry Newman, Oct. 12, 2019. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

CNA Staff, Aug 23, 2025 / 11:15 am (CNA).

Lincoln, Nebraska, Bishop James Conley this week said a proposed federal immigrant detention facility in the state must allow Catholic ministers to provide sacramental and pastoral care.

The bishop made the announcement after Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced the repurposing of the state Work Ethic Camp in McCook to house immigrants in the country illegally.

The state website says the camp presently offers “an integrated program that combines evidence-based practices with treatment and educational opportunities” for prisoners. Pillen told local media this week that the facility “would be converted and provide capacity for 300 migrants,” according to the Nebraska Examiner.

In his own statement this week, Conley said the Diocese of Lincoln has been allowed to administer the sacraments and pastoral care to detainees at the camp “for decades.” The diocese has been allowed to say Mass there “on a weekly basis,” he said.

“It will be of utmost importance that any person detained in the federal immigration detention center in McCook can also access regular and ongoing pastoral care,” the bishop said. “This is fundamental to the dignity of every human person, as each of us is called to union with God.”

Conley further urged that the facility should not be used to detain immigrants who are only in the country illegally but rather “those who have committed crimes that endanger public safety.”

“To do otherwise would undermine the facility’s moral legitimacy and erode public trust,” he argued.

Conley said he remains “committed to safeguarding human dignity, which maintains public safety and respects our migrant brothers and sisters.”

The bishop’s letter comes a few weeks after Catholic leaders in Florida were allowed pastoral access to the state’s so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” immigrant detainment facility in the Everglades.

Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski had previously expressed concern that Catholic ministers were not being allowed access to the facility, though the state ultimately allowed Mass to be celebrated there earlier this month.

A view from the entrance of Christ the King Chapel during the solemn blessing Mass on Aug. 17, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Franciscan University of Steubenville

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 23, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of the latest Catholic education news in the U.S.:

Franciscan University blesses newly renovated Christ the King Chapel

Franciscan University of Steubenville has officially reopened its Christ the King Chapel after 15 months of renovation and expansion as part of the school’s Rebuild My Church Capital Campaign. 

“Franciscan’s chapel has nearly doubled its seating capacity — from 325 to 590 — to better accommodate the growing student population and has added a new altar and tabernacle, new sacred art, and stained-glass windows to beautify the space,” the school said in a press release on Monday. 

A Mass of solemn blessing was celebrated on Aug. 17 by Diocese of Steubenville Apostolic Administrator Bishop Edward Lohse to mark the occasion.

Former Black parish in Kentucky to be converted into science building at local college

Christ the King Catholic Church, a historically Black parish in Louisville, Kentucky, will be converted into a science and technology campus for Simmons College of Kentucky after the Archdiocese of Louisville donated it to the school following the church’s closure on March 7, according to local reports.

“Converting the church property into classrooms and labs is expected to cost around $32 million in total,” a university news article stated, noting the project has been in the works for years.

“At Simmons it’s so important for us to meet workforce needs,” said Simmons Chief of Staff Myra Rock. “There’s a need in our community, not just in the West End, not just in the city, but across the commonwealth, for talent in the STEM fields and specifically underrepresented talent.” 

Archbishop Shelton Fabre said the parish closure was due to declining membership and the financial burden of maintaining the historic property.

Oklahoma archdiocese celebrates grand opening of migrant education center

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City on Wednesday celebrated the grand opening of its Holy Angels Education Center for immigrants in an event attended by Archbishop Paul Coakley and other Catholic leaders, according to the Oklahoman. 

The center will operate on the property of the former Holy Angels Parish, which has been closed since February 2023. 

“The Holy Angels Education Center was born out of a deep desire to serve, uplift, and walk alongside our immigrant brothers and sisters as they build new lives in our community through education, language learning, skills development, and cultural integration,” said Larann Wilson, the associate director for the archdiocese’s secretariat for evangelization. “This center will become a beacon of support and opportunity.”

ExxonMobil donates $5,000 to STEM program at Catholic school in Maryland

ExxonMobil Baytown has donated $5,000 to St. Joseph’s Regional Catholic School to promote “enhancing science education and empowering the next generation of innovators and problem solvers,” according to a local report.

Located in Beltsville, Maryland, St. Joseph’s Regional Catholic School’s mission “is to cooperate with families, who are the primary educators, in developing the whole child in the Catholic Christian faith,” according to its website.

Louisiana Catholic school brings nuns, therapy dogs to help students as classes begin

Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School in Baton Rouge kicked off the school year by inviting nuns and service dogs for the first weeks of classes to help ease anxiety among students, according to a local news report.

“Their presence here has been so transformative,” the school’s pastor and prominent Catholic speaker, Father Joshua Johnson, said in the report.

“And with the sisters came the dogs. When I saw the effect that the dogs were having on our kids, especially our kids who experience anxiety and the peace it brought to those kids, I knew we needed more dogs and more nuns.”

Pope Leo XIV views a gift from an attendee at the International Catholic Legislators Network meeting at the Vatican, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Aug 23, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Saturday urged Catholic lawmakers to draw inspiration from St. Augustine’s “City of God” as they navigate shifting global politics, warning against reducing the idea of human flourishing to mere wealth or consumer comfort.

Speaking to the International Catholic Legislators Network in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, the pope called on parliamentarians to ensure that “power is tamed by conscience and law is at the service of human dignity.”

“Authentic human flourishing is seen when individuals live virtuously, when they live in healthy communities, enjoying not only what they have, what they possess, but also who they are as children of God,” he told the lawmakers.

“It ensures the freedom to seek truth, to worship God, and to raise families in peace. It also includes a harmony with creation and a sense of solidarity across social classes and nations.”

The International Catholic Legislators Network, founded in 2010 by Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and British peer David Alton, gathers Catholic parliamentarians annually in Rome to discuss religious liberty, Church-state relations, the protection of life, and the role of Catholic thought in politics.

This year’s four-day meeting in Rome took up the theme “The New World Order: Major Power Politics, Corporate Dominions, and the Future of Human Flourishing.”

In his speech, Pope Leo pointed to St. Augustine of Hippo, who wrote “The City of God” during the collapse of the Roman Empire.

“To find our footing in the present circumstances — especially you as Catholic legislators and political leaders — I suggest that we might look to the past, to that towering figure of St. Augustine of Hippo,” he said.

“As a leading voice of the Church in the late Roman era, he witnessed immense upheavals and social disintegration. In response, he penned ‘The City of God,’ a work that offers a vision of hope, a vision of meaning that can still speak to us today.”

The pope shared how Augustine taught that there are two “cities” intertwined in human history that signify two orientations of the human heart: “The City of Man, built on pride and love of oneself, is marked by the pursuit of power, prestige, and pleasure; the City of God, built on love of God unto selflessness, is characterized by justice, charity, and humility.”

Leo said that lawmakers are called to act as “bridge-builders between the City of God and the City of Man.”

“Augustine encouraged Christians to infuse the earthly society with the values of God’s kingdom, thereby directing history toward its ultimate fulfillment in God, while also allowing for authentic human flourishing in this life,” he said.

“The future of human flourishing depends on which ‘love’ we choose to organize our society around — a selfish love, the love of self, or the love of God and neighbor.”

Pope Leo also challenged prevailing cultural notions of progress and development. “We must clarify the meaning of human flourishing. Today, a flourishing life is often confused with a materially wealthy life or a life of unrestricted individual autonomy and pleasure,” he said.

“The so-called ideal future presented to us is often one of technological convenience and consumer satisfaction. Yet we know that this is not enough. We see this in affluent societies where many people struggle with loneliness, with despair and a sense of meaninglessness.”

Instead, he insisted, true flourishing stems from what the Church calls “integral human development,” or “the full development of a person in all dimensions: physical, social, cultural, moral, and spiritual.”

“This vision for the human person is rooted in natural law, the moral order that God has written on the human heart, whose deeper truths are illuminated by the Gospel of Christ,” he said.

Pope Leo XIV is the first pope from the Order of St. Augustine, also known as the Augustinians, an ancient religious order with thousands of members worldwide. Leo served as the head of the order from 2001 to 2013.

In the first months of his pontificate, Pope Leo has cited his spiritual father, St. Augustine, on multiple occasions, establishing a pastoral approach deeply rooted in the Augustinian tradition.

Before greeting the lawmakers one by one, the pope thanked them for “bringing the Gospel message into the public arena.”

“Be assured of my prayers for you, your loved ones, your families, your friends, and especially today for those whom you serve,” he said. “May the Lord Jesus, the Prince of Peace, bless and guide your efforts for the true flourishing of the human family.”

St. Pius X. / Credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 23, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic Church celebrated the feast of St. Pius X on Aug. 21 — an influential pope at the turn of the 20th century whose warnings about the heresy of “modernism” help shine light on the deterioration of faith in the West today and the disregard of Church teaching, according to one Catholic scholar.

Pius, who reigned as pope from 1903 to 1914 after the death of Pope Leo XIII, took charge of the Church in the aftermath of the Enlightenment era, which had spurred rationalist and liberal movements throughout Europe and the Americas.

Several of Pius’ predecessors combatted certain Enlightenment-era philosophies, which appeared to be a predominantly outside threat to the Church. This included Pope Gregory XVI’s rebuke of liberalism in the 1830s — which he saw as promoting religious indifferentism and secularism — and Blessed Pius IX, who condemned trends toward naturalism and absolute rationalism, which sought answers to philosophical questions absent divine revelation.

Pius X followed in their footsteps, combatting the heresy of “modernism” in his 1907 encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis. This heresy, he taught, was the pervasion of “false philosophy” within the Catholic laity and clergy, even within the Catholic university system and the seminaries that threatens the foundations of the faith itself.

“The danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church, whose injury is the more certain, the more intimate is their knowledge of her,” Pius wrote. “Moreover they lay the axe not to the branches and shoots but to the very root; that is, to the faith and its deepest fires.”

Modernism, Pius explained, is essentially a form of agnosticism within the Church, which views human reasoning as confined to “things that are perceptible to the senses.” With agnosticism as their foundation, modernists see human reason as “incapable of lifting itself up to God, and of recognizing his existence, even by means of visible things.”

“It is inferred that God can never be the direct object of science and that, as regards history, he must not be considered as an historical subject,” the Holy Father wrote.

Because modernists hold that God cannot be understood through reason, Pius explained, the heresy reduces one’s relationship with God to an “experience of the individual.” A belief in God, the modernists believe, is rooted in “a kind of intuition of the heart, which puts man in immediate contact with the very reality of God.”

Pius continued to say this position can be used to justify any religion. He wrote: “Modernists do not deny but actually admit, some confusedly, others in the most open manner, that all religions are true.”

Pius called modernism “the synthesis of all heresies” because when one applies this foundation to all facets of the faith — such as the divinity of Christ, miracles, tradition, and Scripture itself — the modernists promote an ever-evolving understanding of dogma “that ruins and destroys all religion.”

“[Modernists believe] dogma is not only able, but ought to evolve and to be changed,” the Holy Father explained. “This is strongly affirmed by the Modernists, and as clearly flows from their principles.”

Ron Bolster, the dean of philosophy and theology at Franciscan University, told CNA that the concern about modernism is primarily rooted in its belief that “you cannot know the things of God” and that “all we can do is look toward our internal religious experience.”

“If you have a religious person convinced by a modernist that you can’t really know these things, it leads to a kind of despair,” he said.

“When people are convinced by that or too lazy to sort it out, they abandon the practice of the faith and they no longer have access to the means of salvation that God made available to them,” Bolster warned.

Modernism’s impact on modern society

Bolster said he believes there is “a very clear connection” between Pius X’s warnings against modernism in the Church and the subsequent decline in religiosity in the Western world, along with the large number of Catholics openly dissenting from Church teaching.

A Pew Research Center survey in January 2024 found that the largest religious category in the United States is the “nones,” which is no religion in particular. These individuals make up about 28% of the American population, but only 17% of people in that category identify as atheist. The majority of the category, 63%, identify as “nothing in particular” and the other 20% are agnostic.

The modernist impact on Catholicism itself is also clear. A 2025 Pew survey found that only about two-thirds of Catholics are certain that God exists. About 86% believe heaven exists, but just 69% believe in hell. A majority of Catholics support legal abortion and homosexual civil marriages.

A 2024 EWTN/RealClear poll found that about 52% of Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, while 32% do not and 16% are unsure. Among Catholics, the strongest dissent from teaching appears to consistently be the issue of contraception, with a 2024 survey showing that 90% have used condoms and 60% have used hormonal birth control.

Bolster said the Catholic dissent on contraception, which occurred about 60 years after Pius X published the encyclical, “was the first time that there was kind of a precedent-setting public dissent against Church teaching.”

“That was really your turning point where you see for the first time [a large number of Catholics] publicly dissenting from … Church teaching,” he said.

Bolster noted that “calling into question the teaching of the Church because [of the belief that] we cannot know [the truth]” is a major symptom of modernist trends.

When speaking about Pius X’s warnings about modernism, Bolster said “the language of that document is astoundingly strong” and the pope is “not pulling any punches and the threat is real and the solutions are heavy-handed.”

At the time of the encyclical, Pius X called for ousting clergymen who promote modernism and censoring the promotion of those beliefs, along with establishing diocesan watch committees to find promoters of the heresy.

Pius X also called for a resurgence of the teaching of Scholastic philosophy, for which he said modernists only have “ridicule and contempt.” Many scholastics, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, taught that people can learn about and understand God through the use of reason.

The encyclical also notes that the First Vatican Council anathematizes any person who states that God “cannot be known with certainty by the natural light of human reason by means of the things that are made.”

Bolster noted that Aquinas and other Scholastics point out that Greek pagans like Aristotle and Plato “reasoned to the existence of God” and understood certain limited truths about God that they could gather without specific revelation.

“We can know by natural reason that God exists, that he contains all perfections, that he’s all powerful, and that he’s limitless,” Bolster said.

In spite of the impact that modernism has had on society, Bolster said Catholics should “remain positive.” He said the easy availability of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and “materials that are available for teaching the faith today … [are] reason to hope and reason to give credit to the bishops.”

“We have to get back — double down on the teachings of the Church,” he said.