Pope Leo XIV and King Charles III meet before their prayer together in the Sistine Chapel during a historic meeting at the Vatican on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Dublin, Ireland, Oct 23, 2025 / 18:04 pm (CNA).

King Charles III has acted contrary to the oath made at his coronation and should now “let someone else take his place, who is a true Protestant and who will take their vows seriously,” a prominent Free Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland said after the king prayed with Pope Leo XIV on Thursday in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.

Rev. Kyle Paisley, the son of firebrand Democratic Unionist Party founder Ian Paisley, made the statements in a letter to Newspapers in Northern Ireland and subsequently in an interview on BBC Radio as well as other media outlets. 

In the Sistine Chapel prayer service, King Charles, the supreme governor of the Church of England, accompanied by Queen Camilla, sat at Pope Leo’s left-hand side as the pope and Anglican Archbishop Stephen Cottrell led prayers.

The historic meeting and prayer service was also publicly lamented by the Orange Order, an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. The group decried the ecumenical prayers as a “sad day for Protestantism,” expressing “great sadness” and raising its objections in the “strongest possible terms.” 

In his comments, Paisley questioned whether the historic prayer in Rome was “cynical timing” coming 500 years after the printing of the New Testament in English by William Tyndale, something he claims still has the papacy “licking its wounds.”

“At his coronation, the king affirmed that he was a true Protestant and promised to uphold the religion of the established church in England as well as that of the Church of Scotland, which is historically Protestant,” Paisley said. “Our king has denied the Christian Gospel, flown in the face of holy Scripture, given the lie to his oath, and shown that he is not at all what he says he is — a true Protestant.”

He added: “Protestantism takes the Bible as the sole rule of faith and practice. Romanism does not. Her rule of faith and practice is the Scriptures as interpreted by the Church — that is, by the Roman Catholic Church — and tradition. This effectively makes the Church the rule of faith and practice. God’s word on its own is not enough for her.”

Wallace Thompson of the Evangelical Protestant Society in Northern Ireland agreed with Paisley, though he did not call for the king’s abdication. He told the BBC: “The issues that were there at the time of the Reformation are still there — deep, deep doctrinal differences. The two churches are so far apart that you shouldn’t feel you can engage in joint prayer — conversation, yes. This is symbolic. The king gives certain values at his coronation to maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant reformed religion established by law. He is sending out a signal now that really deep down, he doesn’t want to do that.”

Paisley’s statements also took issue with King Charles and other British royals attending the recent Requiem Mass for the Duchess of Kent, herself a Catholic.

Doubling down on his views, Paisley posted a statement on social media ahead of the Sistine Chapel prayer: “It is a crying shame that no evangelical Christian MP [member of Parliament], or member of the House of Lords, has spoken out publicly about the king’s blatant compromise of his oath, evidenced in the planned act of corporate worship with the pope.”

He continued: “The chair in St. Paul’s Basilica, which has the king’s emblem on it, is not an empty ornament but is there for him to use on any occasion he visits.”

Seeing in this honor Rome’s long-term aim of a complete reversal of the Reformation, Paisley said: “The deadly beast has been licking the wounds inflicted on it by the Reformation and now sees her way to complete healing, aided and abetted by a king who is not true to his word and by a British government and foreign office, and a British prime minister, who are about as godless as they come.”

Paisley’s father, the late Rev. Ian Paisley — the fiery Ulster evangelical Protestant and politician — was virulently anti-Catholic. In 1959 following the visit of the Queen Mother, King Charles’ grandmother, and Princess Margaret, his aunt, with Pope John XXIII in Rome, he accused them of “fornication and adultery with the antichrist.” 

Upon the death of John XXIII, the senior Paisley proclaimed: “This Romish man of sin is now in hell.”

In 1988, Ian Paisley was physically ejected from the European Parliament for bellowing: “I denounce you, antichrist” at Pope John Paul II during his official visit. Pope John Paul II watched calmly as the Ulsterman was removed from the building. 

Afterward Paisley told reporters he had been “assaulted” by Roman Catholic deputies. He added: “The European Parliament is Roman Catholic dominated. Mary is the Madonna of the Common Market.”

Despite his similar views of the Catholic faith, Kyle Paisley on the death of Pope Francis offered his sympathy to “devout Roman Catholics who looked up to him as the head of their Church and the guide of their faith.”

King Charles III has met the last three popes — most notably meeting Francis shortly before his death in April. 

Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI both traveled to Britain, but meetings with the members of the royal family did not include joint prayers.

Prince William, the heir to the throne, attended the funeral of Pope Francis, and Prince Edward, brother of the king, was present at Pope Leo’s inauguration Mass in May.

Pope Leo XIV addresses the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre at the Vatican on Oct. 23, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 17:34 pm (CNA).

In an audience with the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, Pope Leo XIV thanked them for their humble service to the communities of the Holy Land, where they are called to bear witness “that life conquers death.”

At the beginning of his address, the pope recalled the mission with which the order was established in 1098: to protect the Holy Sepulchre, care for pilgrims, and sustain the Church of Jerusalem.

The Holy Father thanked the members of the order present for continuing the work they do “with the humility, dedication, and spirit of sacrifice that characterize chivalric orders,” especially for their witness and solidarity with the Christians of the Holy Land.

In particular, the pontiff emphasized that even today they help the communities of the Holy Land “without any fanfare or seeking publicity” and support the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in its various activities, such as charitable works and humanitarian projects.

“You show that protecting the sepulchre of Christ does not simply mean preserving a historical, archaeological, or artistic heritage — no matter how important that may be — but rather sustaining a Church made of living stones, which was born around it and still lives today as an authentic sign of Easter hope,” he noted.

Leo XIV then reflected on the order’s mission and affirmed that remaining at the sepulchre of the Lord “means renewing one’s faith in the God who keeps his promises, whose power no human force can overcome.”

“In a world where arrogance and violence seem to prevail over charity,” he continued, “you are called to bear witness that life conquers death, that love conquers hatred, that forgiveness conquers revenge, and that mercy and grace conquer sin.”

He also exhorted the members of the order to preside over the holy places with faith, thus helping the faithful “to pause with their hearts at Christ’s tomb, where pain finds its answer in trust.”

To achieve this, he advised them to have an “intense sacramental life” as well as to listen to and meditate on the word of God through personal and liturgical prayer and spiritual formation.

The pope also reflected on the hope embodied in the women who went to the tomb to seek Jesus, which he described as “the face of service,” reiterating his gratitude to the order “for the great good you do, following the ancient tradition of assistance that characterizes you.” 

“How often, thanks to your work, a ray of light opens for individuals, families, and entire communities who risk being overwhelmed by terrible tragedies, at every level, especially in the places where Jesus lived,” he noted.

He also noted that the image of St. Peter and St. John rushing to the sepulcher and finding Jesus’ tomb empty represents “the gesture of pilgrimage, a symbol of the search for the ultimate meaning of life.”

Pope Leo thus invited them to experience their pilgrimage to Rome “as a stage from which to resume the journey toward the only true and definitive goal: full and eternal communion with God in paradise.”

The pontiff asked them to bear witness and to invite the faithful “to experience the things of this world with the freedom and joy of those who know they are on their way toward the infinite horizon of eternity.”

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

A color guard stands at attention as Eliza Monroe Hay’s remains are carried for reinterment at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Payne/CNA

Richmond, Virginia, Oct 23, 2025 / 17:04 pm (CNA).

Nearly two centuries after her death, the daughter of American Founding Father James Monroe has been laid to rest in Richmond, Virginia, joining her family’s historic burial plot in the city’s famed Hollywood Cemetery. 

The Diocese of Richmond held Eliza Monroe Hay’s reinterment at the top of Hollywood Cemetery overlooking the James River on Oct. 23. Hay, who died in 1840, converted to Catholicism several years before her death. 

State Sen. Bryce Reeves, who worked with the Eliza Project to repatriate Hay’s remains, said she was “far more than the daughter of a president.”

He described Hay as strong-willed and intelligent. “She served this nation quietly but powerfully in its formative years,” he said. 

The historic reinterment came about from a yearslong effort by the Eliza Project to bring Hay’s mortal remains home from the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, a cemetery on the outskirts of Paris.

 Born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1786, Hay grew up in both the U.S. and Paris, where her father was the American ambassador amid the ongoing French Revolution. 

She would later be known for serving as an unofficial First Lady of the White House during James Monroe’s presidency, as her mother Elizabeth’s health regularly kept her away from state functions. 

Hay’s husband, Virginia attorney George Hay, died in 1830, as did her mother. James Monroe died in 1831 and was by then one of a dwindling number of prominent U.S. citizens who had led the country through its founding and earliest years.

Hay herself subsequently returned to Paris, where she converted to Catholicism before she died.

A happy ending

Delivering Hay’s eulogy at the event, Virginia resident Barbara VornDick described Hay as “my friend from the past.”

VornDick said in an Oct. 21 press release that the effort “has been a fascinating, enriching journey in many ways,” though she said the “most amazing aspect was how it enriched my faith.”

She told the Arlington Catholic Herald in August that she spent years researching Hay’s life. She discovered that a popular family legend that Hay became a nun was untrue, but her conversion to Catholicism was confirmed by records at St.-Philippe-du-Roule Church in Paris, where her funeral Mass was held in 1840. 

Hay also reportedly received a piece of jewelry from the Vatican — a cameo of the head of Christ — along with a note from Pope Gregory XVI’s secretary of state. 

During her years at the White House, Hay gained a reputation as an unpleasant, demanding hostess. Reeves said at the Oct. 23 ceremony that Hay was at one time described by John Quincy Adams as an “obstinate little firebrand.”

The Eliza Project, however, says she had a record of “good deeds and generosity” that history has largely forgotten. 

“She gained increasing admiration for her nursing of the sick: for family, for friends, and, during two epidemics, for the people of Washington,” the project said. 

She also exhibited “a sense of duty and loyalty, strength of character and fortitude, and compassion for the sick and suffering.”

The Diocese of Richmond had earlier held a memorial Mass for Hay at the nearby Cathedral of the Sacred Heart before the interment at Hollywood Cemetery. Father Tony Marques, the rector of the cathedral, presided over the Rite of Committal on Oct. 23. The cathedral’s choir performed at the ceremony.

Describing the yearslong project to repatriate Hay’s remains as a “grassroots effort,” Reeves told the assembled crowd on Tuesday: “The Virginian thing to do was bring Eliza home.”

VornDick told the Herald that the yearslong effort to “bring Eliza home” was motivated by the likelihood that she “never intended to die” in Paris.

“I just wanted to make it right for her,” she said.

At the reinterment, meanwhile, VornDick described Hay as a “daughter, sister, wife, and grandmother,” one who stands out in history for her devotion, service, and forceful personality. 

“Today marks the end of the Bring Eliza Home Project,” she said. “But it is a happy ending.”

Pope Leo XIV meets with participants of the fifth World Meeting of Popular Movements on Oct. 23, 2025, in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Oct 23, 2025 / 15:26 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday decried the devastating impact of opioid addiction in the U.S., criticizing the pharmaceutical industry for its lack of “a global ethic” for the sake of profits.

In an Oct. 23 meeting with participants of the fifth World Meeting of Popular Movements held inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall, the pope directly spoke out against “unbridled consumerism” and its negative impacts on people living in both poor and wealthy nations.

“In the current culture, with the help of advertising and publicity, a cult of physical well-being is being promoted, almost an idolatry of the body and, in this vision, the mystery of pain is reduced to something totally inhuman,” he said.

“This can lead also to dependence on pain medications, the sale of which obviously goes to increasing the earnings of the same pharmaceutical companies,” he continued. “This also leads to dependence on opioids, as has been devastating particularly in the United States.” 

Describing fentanyl as the “drug of death” and the “second most common cause of death among the poor” in the U.S., the pope said the harm of such synthetic drugs extends beyond the country’s borders.

“The spread of new synthetic drugs, ever more lethal, is not only a crime involving trafficking of drugs but really has to do with the production of pharmaceuticals and their profit, lacking a global ethic,” he said on Thursday.

Besides the pharmaceutical industry, the Holy Father also criticized the influence of big tech in promoting unhealthy, consumerist behaviors among people of all ages.

“How can a poor young person live with hope and without anxiety when the social media constantly exalt an unbridled consumerism and a totally unrealizable level of economic success?” he said.

“Another problem not often recognized is represented by the dependency on digital gambling,” he continued. “The platforms are designed to create compulsive dependence and generate addictive habits that create addiction.” 

Throughout the Oct. 23 gathering, the Holy Father expressed his solidarity with social leaders who are “moved by the desire of love” in order to “find solutions in a society dominated by unjust systems” present in the world today.

“Your many and creative initiatives can become new public policies and social rights. Yours is a legitimate and necessary effort,” he told those present at the audience.

“This makes you champions of humanity, witnesses to justice, poets of solidarity,” he added.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance tours the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. / Credit: Nathan HOWARD / POOL / AFP / Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 23, 2025 / 13:20 pm (CNA).

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, attended a private Mass celebrated by Franciscan monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Thursday during a three-day diplomatic trip to Israel.

Vance, the nation’s second Catholic vice president, met with a group of bishops and went to confession prior to Mass, according to the White House Pool Report.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was constructed in the early fourth century during the reign of Constantine the Great, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. It is jointly operated by the Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, and four Oriental Orthodox churches.

According to tradition, the church is built on the site of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. It is a premier pilgrimage destination for Christians who visit the Holy Land.

“What an amazing blessing to have visited the site of Christ’s death and resurrection,” Vance later said in a post on X. “I am immensely grateful to the Greek, Armenian, and Catholic priests who care for this most sacred of places. May the Prince of Peace have mercy on us and bless our efforts for peace.”

During his visit, Vance knelt in silent prayer in front of The Stone of Anointing. Many believe this to be the stone on which Jesus Christ’s body was anointed with oils and balms before his burial.

He also prayed before the Calvary Altar, which is believed to be the location where Christ was crucified.

According to the pool report, Vance and his wife both lit candles in the church. Vance also lit two candles with fire from Christ’s tomb to bring back to the United States.

“We are sending these lights to the White House,” an Armenian Orthodox bishop said, according to the pool report. “May God bless America, the United States, and Armenia and our friendship.”

Vance’s trip to Israel comes as the White House is working with Israel and Hamas to maintain a ceasefire, which halted a two-year-long war in Gaza. Earlier during his trip, he asked Christians to pray for peace in the region.

“Christians have many titles for Jesus Christ — and one of them is the Prince of Peace,” the vice president said. “And I’d ask people of all faiths, in particular my fellow Christians, to pray that the Prince of Peace can continue to work a miracle in this region of the world.”

“I think with your prayers and with God’s providence, and with a very good team behind me, I think we’re going to get it done,” he said.

Pope Leo XIV and King Charles III walk together in the Sistine Chapel during a historic meeting that included a prayer service at the Vatican, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Oct 23, 2025 / 09:34 am (CNA).

History was made in the Sistine Chapel on Thursday as Pope Leo XIV and King Charles III prayed side by side, marking the first time since the Protestant Reformation that a reigning British monarch and a pope have prayed together during a royal state visit to the Vatican.

Pope Leo XIV led the midday prayer of the Divine Office, standing beneath Michelangelo’s fresco of “The Last Judgment” and flanked by Anglican Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, King Charles, and Queen Camilla.

The ecumenical prayer service featured the Sistine Chapel Choir along with the choirs from St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle and His Majesty’s Chapel Royal.

The choirs sang “Come, Holy Ghost, Who Ever One,” a hymn by St. Ambrose translated into English by St. John Henry Newman. Pope Leo will declare Newman, the 19th-century English cardinal and Anglican convert, a doctor of the Church on Nov. 1. 

King Charles attended Newman’s canonization in 2019 and recently became the first British monarch to visit the Birmingham Oratory, which Newman founded in 1848.

During the prayer, the choirs sang verses of Psalms 8 and 64 in Latin and English. A reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans (8:22–27) was read aloud before Pope Leo and Cottrell offered the closing prayer together in English.

Cardinals, bishops, and Anglican representatives attended the prayer service, which was the highlight of the king’s first state visit to the Holy See since his accession in 2022.

As part of the state visit, Pope Leo approved the conferral of a new title on the monarch: “Royal Confrater” of the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. Cardinal James Michael Harvey, the basilica’s archpriest, will formally bestow the honor during an afternoon ecumenical service at the tomb of St. Paul. 

In return, Pope Leo XIV was offered the title of “Papal Confrater” of St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, an invitation Pope Leo accepted.

“These mutual gifts of ‘confraternity’ are recognitions of spiritual fellowship and are deeply symbolic of the journey the Church of England (of which His Majesty is Supreme Governor) and the Roman Catholic Church have traveled over the past 500 years,” the British Embassy to the Holy See said in a statement. 

Before the prayer service, King Charles and Queen Camilla met privately with Pope Leo in the Apostolic Palace. The king also met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister. The Vatican said discussions focused on environmental protection, fighting poverty, and promoting ecumenical dialogue.

“Particular attention was given to the shared commitment to promoting peace and security in the face of global challenges,” the Holy See Press Office said.

King Charles also conferred on the pope the honor of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Bath, while the pope conferred on the king the honor of Knight Grand Cross with the Collar of the Vatican Order of Pope Pius IX and on Queen Camilla the honor of Dame Grand Cross of the same order.

The royal visit comes as King Charles continues treatment for cancer, first diagnosed in early 2024. 

Buckingham Palace said that the king’s state visit — postponed earlier this year due to the poor health of Pope Francis — celebrates both the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year and “the ecumenical work between the Church of England and the Catholic Church, reflecting the jubilee year’s theme of walking together as ‘Pilgrims of Hope.’” 

Following the Sistine Chapel service, Pope Leo and King Charles met business and church leaders in the Apostolic Palace’s Sala Regia for a discussion on environmental sustainability and care for creation.

After the Vatican meetings, King Charles is scheduled to visit the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, reviving the historic ties between England and the papal basilica. After the arrival in England of Roman monk-missionaries such as St. Augustine of Canterbury and St. Paulinus of York in the sixth and seventh centuries, Saxon rulers including Kings Offa and Æthelwulf contributed to the upkeep of the apostles’ tombs in Rome. 

By the late Middle Ages, the kings of England were recognized as “protectors” of the Basilica of St. Paul and abbey, and its heraldic shield came to include the insignia of the Order of the Garter. That tradition was interrupted by the Reformation and the ensuing centuries of estrangement. 

A newly commissioned chair bearing the royal coat of arms and the Latin phrase “Ut unum sint” (“That they may be one”) has been installed in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls for King Charles and his successors to use during future visits.

King Charles visited the Vatican several times as Prince of Wales, including for the funeral of John Paul II and for Newman’s canonization. His last papal audience was with Pope Francis in April, shortly before Francis’ death, though that was not an official state visit.

Queen Elizabeth II, Charles’ mother, met five popes during her 70-year reign but never participated in a public prayer with any of them.

Bishop Philippe Christory of Chartres, France. / Credit: Eichthus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The bishop of Chartres, France, Philippe Christory, addressed a letter to the senators of Eure-et-Loir, a region belonging to his diocese, in which he stated that assisted suicide and euthanasia contradict “an immemorial law: You shall not kill.”

The French prelate’s letter comes at a crucial moment as the “end-of-life” bill is under legislative review after years of political pressure to legalize euthanasia in the country.

The bill, filed last May, introduces the concept of “assistance in dying,” a term that encompasses both euthanasia — where a third party directly administers the lethal substance — and assisted suicide, in which the patient performs the final act. 

Although the procedure must be subject to a medical evaluation, the legislative proposal also provides that adults suffering from a serious and incurable condition that causes unbearable physical or psychological suffering could be eligible.

On May 24 of this year, members of the National Assembly approved the creation of an offense for obstructing access to “assistance in dying,” which would criminalize any attempt to prevent the act itself or access to information about it.

In this context, Christory appealed to the right to conscientious objection of those doctors who “cannot contemplate committing a lethal act,” as it would go against their conscience “and the very purpose of their profession, which is to care for and support patients in their life project even if this is moving toward its physical end.”

The bishop denounced the French Legislature’s lack of support for these professionals as “unacceptable,” since “freedom of conscience should never be taken away or limited; it’s a fundamental right of every person.”

After lamenting the high suicide rate in France — more than 8,000 suicides were recorded in 2023 — Christory recalled that the essence of an advanced civilization “is to promote life and support the lives of those who suffer” and noted that those who ask to end their lives often lack support.

“The end of life can be a decisive moment for reconsideration, reconciliation, and sharing with loved ones,” he added. At the end of his letter, he urged the senators to “promote a plan for life, not a plan for death that would stain our culture.”

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

Father Adam Muda, a chaplain for the U.S. Army, celebrates Mass on the field with soldiers while in Germany. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Adam Muda

CNA Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

During Pastoral Care Week, celebrated Oct. 19–25, a Catholic psychotherapist encouraged a group of Catholic chaplains and ministers to pursue prayer, rest, and self-care in light of burnout — a challenge that often accompanies their unique work.

At an Oct. 22 webinar, “Carrying the Cross Without Burnout: Self-Care for Catholic Chaplains,” Adrienne Koller, a Catholic psychotherapist and founder of Strong Self Psychotherapy, encouraged chaplains to make time for spiritual and emotional renewal. 

The webinar, organized by the National Association of Catholic Chaplains (NACC), a group that educates and supports Catholic chaplains across the country, highlighted the importance of finding rest amid the emotional toll of ministry.

“God doesn’t call us to self-erasure,” Koller told the nearly 100 chaplains who attended the webinar. “He calls us to stewardship of our bodies, our minds, and spirits.”

Koller described self-care as “stewardship” and “caring for the vessel God entrusted to you.”

“One of the most powerful mindset shifts I’ve seen in ministry is this: Self-care is not selfishness; it’s stewardship,” Koller said. “You are the vessel God entrusted with the work he gave you, and taking care of that vessel honors him.”

“You’re not taking away from your calling. You’re strengthening it,” she said. “Renewal isn’t an indulgence — it’s obedience.” 

Erica Cohen Moore, executive director of NACC, highlighted the importance of caring for chaplains, both during Pastoral Care Week and throughout the year. 

“Our chaplains are often called into spaces where few others are willing or able to go,” Cohen Moore told CNA. “They serve people in some of the most marginalized and challenging situations, where grief and suffering can be profound.” 

Pastoral Care Week “gives opportunities for organizations and institutions of all types to recognize the spiritual caregivers in their midst and the ministry that the caregivers provide,” according to the NACC’s website.

Chaplains are often priests, but seminarians, deacons, religious brothers and sisters, and laymen and laywomen can all serve as chaplains, providing professional spiritual and emotional support in a range of areas — often in prisons, hospitals, fire departments, and campuses.  

To help prepare and support chaplains, the NACC offers a variety of resources, training, community, and support for chaplains, both Catholic and non-Catholic. 

What does burnout look like? 

“Over the years, I’ve walked with countless individuals who appear incredibly strong on the outside yet wrestle with exhaustion, doubt, or the feeling that their work has taken more from them than they have time to replenish,” Koller told attendees. 

Koller noted that the “emotional weight” of service can lead to burnout.

“That emotional weight, it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong; it means you’re human,” she said. “But we do take on that emotional weight, and that can lead, if unchecked, to burnout.”  

“Burnout doesn’t happen because we’re weak or we’re incapable,” Koller continued. “It happens because we care deeply, we give fully, and sometimes we forget to refill our own cup.”

To combat the weight of service, Koller encouraged ministers to pray before and after each difficult meeting or encounter, and to offer the weight of those challenges to the Lord. She also led the group in grounding prayer exercises that incorporate breathing into prayer. 

Cohen Moore noted that burnout is a “very real concern” that chaplains face — one that her organization works to combat through the resources they provide.  

The association educates chaplains with a program called Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), which is “a process that equips them to manage burnout and care for themselves and one another,” according to Cohen Moore.

The group also offers webinars on topics such as self-care, mental illness and trauma, and mental health, as well as networking groups and in-person gatherings, and publishes a magazine called Works of Hope.

The association plans to launch a learning institute early next year to include a course on “sustaining pastoral ministers and helping them avoid burnout,” Cohen Moore said. 

“Burnout is a very real concern in our field, and we take it seriously as we continue exploring new ways to provide care and connection,” Cohen Moore said. 

‘I will give you rest’ 

When Koller speaks with “those in service, especially chaplains and first responders,” she said that one verse “always comes to mind.” 

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Koller noted that Christ “doesn’t say: ‘Keep pushing, work harder, work harder, deplete yourself, run yourself into the ground.” 

“No — he says, ‘Come to me,’” she said.

“That invitation isn’t to perform,” Koller continued. “It’s to rest, in a way, to surrender the illusion that we have to carry everything alone. That’s where our renewal begins.”

Antonia Salzano is the mother of St. Carlo Acutis. / Credit: “EWTN Noticias”/Screenshot

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Antonia Salzano, the mother of St. Carlo Acutis, who was present with the rest of her family at his canonization on Sept. 7, recently shared what it’s like to be the mother of a saint and offered valuable advice to other mothers who, like her, have gone through the painful experience of the death of a child.

Salzano shared having had the opportunity to attend the canonization with Assunta Carlini Goretti, the mother of St. Maria Goretti, who saw the child martyr of purity declared a saint on June 24, 1950.

When asked what it is like to be the mother of a saint, Salzano in an interview with “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News, said: “Naturally, it’s a privilege, but also a duty, because first and foremost, I have to become a saint myself, because the call is also for me. I have to set an example.”

The mother of St. Carlo Acutis, who died at age 15 in 2006 from leukemia, emphasized that being the mother of a saint is also “a call to help others, because people are in darkness. Many people haven’t found God.”

The saint’s parents — Salzano and her husband, Andrea Acutis — accompanied by his younger twin siblings, Michele and Francesca, brought the offertory gifts to Pope Leo XIV during the canonization Mass.

“If I can give advice, speak a good word to help souls, I do it gladly, with great love, because I think the most important thing is to find God in our lives and live in God’s light,” emphasized the mother of St. Carlo, the “Apostle of the Eucharist” who created a virtual exhibition on Eucharistic miracles around the world.

Salzano’s counsel to those who have suffered the death of a child

“The important thing is to understand that what matters is loving God [and] our neighbor. This is the most important thing. If you lose your child, it’s not that you’ve lost him or her for eternity. It’s not goodbye. It’s to find yourself in another, more beautiful life, with God, with God’s light,” Salzano said.

“Carlo said that death is the passage to true life. Whoever is afraid of death does so because they don’t trust in God, they don’t have faith in God. Because if we have trust in God, we cannot be afraid of death,” she continued.

The only thing we should fear, Salzano pointed out, “is sin, because this can separate us forever from God. Death is ultimately the encounter with the beloved, the encounter with the most beautiful thing in the universe, with God.”

“Carlo began going to Mass every day when he was 7 years old. He wrote on that occasion: ‘To always be united to Jesus, this is my life plan,’” Salzano recalled.

“The encounter with Jesus was the most important part of his day. Naturally, this didn’t prevent Carlo from having a normal life, like all young people — his studies, his sports, all his friends — but for Carlo, the central focus was the encounter with Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament,” Salzano said.

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

St. John Capistrano and St. Bernardine of Siena. Museum of Fine Arts of Granada. Painting, oil on canvas, by Alonso Cano (1653-1657) for an altarpiece of the disappeared Franciscan convent of San Antonio and San Diego, Granada. / Credit: Jl FilpoC, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Oct. 23, the Catholic Church celebrates the life of St. John of Capistrano, a Franciscan priest whose life included a political career, extensive missionary journeys, efforts to reunite separated Eastern Christians with Rome, and a historically important turn at military leadership.

Invoked as a patron of military chaplains, St. John of Capistrano was praised by St. John Paul II — whose feast day was yesterday, Oct. 22 — in a 2002 general audience for his “glorious evangelical witness” and as a priest who “gave himself with great generosity for the salvation of souls.”

Born in Italy in 1385, John lost his father — a French or possibly German knight who had settled in Capistrano — at a young age. John’s mother took care to have him educated, and after learning Latin he went on to study both civil law and Church law in Perugia. An outstanding student, he soon became a prominent public figure and was appointed governor of the city at age 26.

John showed high standards of integrity in his civic career, and in 1416 he labored to end a war that had erupted between Perugia and the prominent House of Malatesta. But when the nobles had John imprisoned, he began to question his life’s direction. Encountering St. Francis of Assisi in a dream, he resolved to embrace poverty, chastity, and obedience with the Franciscans.

Abandoning his possessions and social status, John joined the religious order in October 1416. He found a mentor in St. Bernardine of Siena, known for his bold preaching and his method of prayer focused on the invocation of the name of Jesus. Taking after his teacher in these respects, John began preaching as a deacon in 1420 and was ordained a priest in 1425.

John successfully defended his mentor from a charge of heresy made against his way of devotion, though he found less success in his efforts to resolve internal controversy among the followers of St. Francis. A succession of popes entrusted important matters to John, including the effort to reunite Eastern and Western Christendom at the Ecumenical Council of Florence.

Drawing immense crowds in his missionary travels throughout Italy, John also found success as a preacher in Central Europe, where he opposed the Hussites’ error regarding the nature and administration of the Eucharist. After Constantinople fell to Turkish invaders in 1453, Pope Nicholas V sent John on a mission to rally other European leaders in defense of their lands.

Nicholas’ successor Pope Callixtus III was even more eager to see the Christian world defend itself against the invading forces. When Sultan Mehmet II sought to extend his territorial gains into Serbia and Hungary, John joined the celebrated general Janos Hunyadi in his defense of Belgrade. The priest personally led a section of the army in its historic victory on Aug. 6, 1456.

Neither John nor the general, however, would survive long past the battle.

Weakened by the campaign against the Turks, Hunyadi became sick and died soon after the victory at Belgrade. John survived to preach Hunyadi’s funeral sermon, but his own extraordinary life came to an end after a painful illness on Oct. 23, 1456. St. John of Capistrano was canonized in 1724.

This story was first published on Oct. 21, 2012, and has been updated.