Pope Francis blesses an ambulance that he donated to to treat the wounded in Ukraine’s Ternopil region in 2024. / Credit: Dicastery for the Service of Charity

Vatican City, Apr 7, 2025 / 18:01 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has donated to Ukraine four ambulances that will be deployed in hardest-hit areas in a concrete gesture of his closeness and concern for those suffering the devastating effects of the war there. The vehicles bear the Vatican’s coat of arms.

According to the Dicastery for the Service of Charity on Monday, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner, will be responsible for delivering the ambulances, which are in addition to the medical equipment that has been donated in the past.

On other occasions, the pope has blessed the ambulances before the trip, but the Holy See press office did not specify if he did so this time.

“The Holy Father has decided to send his eminence to Ukraine again to donate four ambulances, equipped with all the necessary medical equipment to save lives, which will be deployed in war zones,” the statement read.

Krajewski will be assisted by three other drivers from Ukraine during his trip, which will include visits to areas where there is active fighting. The cardinal is also traveling to the country “to be with the people so tested by the conflict, to pray with them, and to be an expression of the pope’s closeness,” the Vatican reported.

The Polish cardinal, who since 2013 has been papal almoner, the person in charge of carrying out charitable works in the name of the Holy Father, has already visited the country more than a dozen times since the outbreak of the war in 2022.

The press release quotes Pope Francis from his Easter Day 2024 urbi et orbi message: Only Jesus “opens the doors to life,” the pope said, “those very doors we keep shutting with the wars spreading throughout the world.”

For the Vatican, the pope’s words “become action to break down the barriers and bring the Easter light into the shadows of darkness.” 

The pontiff’’s donation comes at “this time of Easter rebirth,” in which the pope wanted to make “a gesture of closeness in one of the most painful places where war has been raging for three years: tormented Ukraine.”

“Three years that for the Holy Father are a ‘painful and shameful anniversary for humanity.’ Pope Francis always remembers the Eastern European country, both in the Angelus prayer and in his appeals for peace, which constantly refer to other dramatic situations such as in Palestine, Israel, Myanmar, Kivu, and Sudan,” the statement reads. “The gift of the four ambulances thus becomes a sign of jubilee hope anchored in Christ.”

Last Friday, in a new diplomatic effort between the Vatican and Russia, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s secretary for relations with states and international organizations, telephoned Sergei Lavrov, minister of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation.

The Holy See press office stated that the conversation focused on “the overall picture of world politics” with “particular attention to the situation of the war in Ukraine” and “some initiatives aimed at stopping the military actions.”

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

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks at the USCCB fall plenary assembly Nov. 14, 2023. / Credit: USCCB video

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 7, 2025 / 17:29 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has made what it is calling the “difficult decision” to not renew cooperative agreements with the federal government amid policy changes from President Donald Trump’s administration to cut funding from refugee programs.

“While this marks a painful end to a life-sustaining partnership with our government that has spanned decades across administrations of both political parties, it offers every Catholic an opportunity to search our hearts for new ways to assist,” USCCB President Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio said in an April 7 statement.

The archbishop wrote that the funding cut “forces us to reconsider the best way to serve the needs of our brothers and sisters seeking safe harbor from violence and persecution.”

For about four and a half decades, the USCCB partnered with the federal government to provide services that help resettle refugees and support minors who entered the country without a parent or guardian or are separated from their families.

“All participants in these programs were welcomed by the U.S. government to come to the United States,” Broglio said. “These are displaced souls who see in America a place of dreams and hope.”

During the Biden administration, the federal government provided more than $100 million annually to the bishops, who redirected those funds to affiliated Catholic organizations that provided services. In recent years, the federal funding covered more than 95% of the expenses.

The Trump administration, which alleges that these programs strain both federal and local social services and facilitate unsustainable migration into the United States, has halted the entry of new refugees and ended federal support for programs that fund USCCB affiliates and other nongovernmental organizations that provide migrant and refugee services.

In February, the USCCB sued the administration over the funding freeze and laid off 50 employees due to the funding shortfall. Numerous Catholic organizations have also announced layoffs due to the administration’s cuts to both domestic and international programs. 

Broglio said the USCCB “simply cannot sustain the work on our own at current levels or in current form.” He added that the bishops “will work to identify alternative means of support for the people the federal government has already admitted to these programs.”

“Our efforts were acts of pastoral care and charity, generously supported by the people of God when funds received from the government did not cover the full cost,” he added. “The Gospel’s call to do what we can for the least among us remains our guide. We ask you to join us in praying for God’s grace in finding new ways to bring hope where it is most needed.”

The archbishop noted that the USCCB, since its founding, “has been concerned with helping families who are fleeing war, violence, and oppression.” In 1920, he noted, it established a Bureau of Immigration to help displaced families find new opportunities in the United States.

“Many of us can trace our own parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents to these very families,” Broglio pointed out.

The USCCB president indicated that the organization “will continue advocating for policy reforms that provide orderly, secure immigration processes, ensuring the safety of everyone in our communities” and will “remain steadfast in our commitment to advocating on behalf of men, women, and children suffering the scourge of human trafficking.”

Loyola High School alumni, students, and school benefactors gather in the new St. Peter Claver Chapel on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. The chapel features sacred items donated from various churches in the Archdiocese of Detroit. / Credit: Valaurian Waller/Detroit Catholic

CNA Staff, Apr 7, 2025 / 16:47 pm (CNA).

A shooting in northwest Detroit on Monday morning resulted in a stray bullet breaching the newly dedicated Catholic chapel at Loyola High School, reportedly while about 40 students were inside.

Police said the bullet entered St. Peter Claver Chapel at around 7:50 a.m. on April 7. There were no reported injuries, and police are canvassing the neighborhood seeking information on what led to the shooting and who was involved.

CNA reached out to the Detroit Police Department for further information, inquiring as to whether there are any suspects in the shooting, but did not receive a response by publication time.

The Catholic boys high school in Detroit, which is under the care of the Jesuits Midwest Province, dedicated the new chapel last week. The archdiocese says it is the first Catholic worship space constructed in the city of Detroit since the mid-1960s.

Deborale Richardson-Phillips, Loyola High School’s principal, said in a statement to local news on Monday that the bullet penetrated the chapel wall shortly before the school’s regularly scheduled morning prayer. She said the school is “deeply grateful to report that no one was injured.”

“As a precaution, all students are currently being held safely in the gym. For everyone’s safety, while the investigation is ongoing, students will be permitted to leave with a parent or guardian, students who drove will only be released with parental consent, and no student will be allowed to walk home,” the principal continued. 

“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and will keep you informed with any updates as they become available. Please join us in prayer for the continued safety of our entire school community.”

According to the Detroit Catholic, the newspaper of the archdiocese, the 225-seat chapel was dedicated April 2 after a $9 million fundraising campaign, which launched in 2023. 

Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger — himself newly appointed in February and installed as archbishop last month — presided over the dedication alongside leaders of Loyola High School, the Detroit Jesuit community, and donors to the campaign. 

The chapel features sacred items donated from across the Archdiocese of Detroit, including chairs from St. James Parish in Novi, Stations of the Cross from the former St. Philomena Parish in Detroit, a statue of Our Lady from the former St. Ladislaus Parish in Hamtramck, and a tabernacle from St. Daniel Parish in Clarkston.

During the dedication, Jesuit Father Thomas McClain, superior of the Detroit Jesuit community, presented Richardson-Phillips with a relic of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, as a reminder to the school “to look to Christ as the model to follow.”

Loyola’s campus used to be home to the former St. Peter Claver Church, but the church roof collapsed in January 2018, forcing the school to celebrate Mass and prayer time in the school’s gym, which is located inside the edifice of the former St. Francis de Sales Parish.

“The transition from praying in a gym, where we play and we laugh and eat popcorn, to this beautiful new space on our campus where there’s a different [sense] of reverence is really exciting for our students,” Richardson-Phillips, the school’s principal, told the Detroit Catholic. 

“It’s really exciting for our students, and it’s exciting for me to see them connecting at what I consider to be the heart of our mission, which is faith formation.”

The school’s campaign saw the construction of the new chapel complex and a student courtyard as well as the construction of a welcome center, a $1.5 million student tuition assistance fund, and a $1 million faculty development fund.

“On behalf of the archdiocese, I want to say to our benefactors and donors, these things would not have happened without you,” Weisenburger said at the April 2 dedication. 

“God sees these things, and for those of us who are called to leadership, this and the way that you have made this possible matters. Our God sees it.”

Daniel Meloy of the Detroit Catholic contributed to this story.

National Institutes of Health building in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Mark Van Scyoc/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 7, 2025 / 16:22 pm (CNA).

The Trump administration has directed the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to begin a research initiative to study “regret” among individuals who undergo so-called gender transition treatments.

In March, the White House canceled multiple NIH grants involving gender identity along with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Now, the administration is ordering the NIH to resume some transgender research but with the goal of examining the potential negative consequences the hormonal and surgical treatments can have.

Theresa Farnan, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, discussed with CNA why this research is needed to help individuals who experience regret after transitioning treatments.

Farnan said many people who report negative consequences after medical gender transitions were already struggling with a mental health issue, trauma, or a form of autism before they transitioned. She said they are often “not really presented with alternative explanations for their feelings or less invasive treatments.”

She explained that when transitioners do feel regret, “it is nearly impossible, outside of a few dedicated physicians (many of whom are Catholic or Christian physicians), to find a doctor who will supervise the process of detransitioning from hormones.”

“This research should Illuminate the need for ongoing medical care addressing the needs of detransitioners and insurance coverage,” Farnan continued, saying she hopes it will reveal “the damaging effect of social transition, which is misleadingly presented as a period of exploration but in reality locks children into a ‘transgender’ identity.”

Farnan said she anticipates that “the NIH research will be vigorously opposed by the gender clinic industry.”

“The last thing they want is a spotlight on what really goes on in gender clinics. Detransitioners are compelling witnesses to the unethical and dangerous nature of this industry,” she said.

Catholic deacon and retired medical doctor Patrick Lappert told CNA that during his time as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, he performed multiple reversal surgeries on people who experienced regret after transitioning.

“The regret itself, the emotional, psychological process the person has endured … deserves a lot of examination and support,” he said. “The NIH can definitely get involved in the research of what is in the long-term.”

Lappert specified that the NIH research should examine the long-term effects of medications and surgeries that he said “we have little to no information” on. He said this includes puberty blockers, high-dose cross-sex steroids, fertility harms, heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes.

He explained that if there is research to help further understand these issues, “we will better serve the persons who are detransitioning.” Then the next steps can be “research into surgical techniques for, in some measure, reversing the effects of the surgery,” he said.

Lappert said Europe has conducted research on gender ideology and transitioning, especially with children, and found that the process “does not help, it hurts.”

“It’s a result because the Europeans have a medical database that can be examined and you can see the long-term effects,” he said. “The American process of practicing medicine has a lot of scattered medical records. Everybody keeps their own records, hospital systems, medical systems. It’s very hard to interrogate that.”

Dr. Roy Eappen, a senior fellow at Do No Harm, told CNA that he views the new NIH research initiative as “a huge step towards dismantling and exposing the lies propping up the transgender industry.”

“For too long the United States avoided asking the real questions surrounding sex-change issues, and it’s because transgender activists in leadership positions … didn’t want them to be asked,” Eappen said.

“Meanwhile, Europe conducted studies into these harmful practices and subsequently abandoned them due to the lack of scientific support,” he said.

The Trump administration and the NIH have not yet released specific details pertaining to the research or how it will be conducted.

Bishop Robert Barron is the founder of Word on Fire, a media apostolate focused on evangelization. / Credit: Courtesy of Word on Fire

CNA Staff, Apr 7, 2025 / 15:22 pm (CNA).

The Catholic University of America (CUA) has announced that Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, is set to speak at its 2025 commencement ceremony. 

Barron, a university alumnus, is known for his work evangelizing digital media through his nonprofit global media apostolate Word on Fire and his YouTube channel, which has reached nearly 2 million subscribers.

With its campus in the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C., CUA is the national university of the Catholic Church in the United States.

Barron will receive an honorary degree alongside five others: U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith; former March for Life president Jeanne Mancini; Archbishop Vicken Aykazian of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America; Monsignor John Enzler, former president of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington; and Steven Muncy, alumnus and founder of the humanitarian nonprofit Community and Family Services International.

In a statement, CUA President Peter Kilpatrick praised Barron’s work in education and evangelism. “Bishop Barron has spent his life illuminating Catholic teachings and making them accessible to millions of people around the world through his books, videos, and social media presence,” Kilpatrick said.

In addition to founding Word on Fire, Barron is a No. 1 Amazon bestselling author and host of the “Catholicism” documentary series that aired on PBS.

“His ability to engage modern culture while faithfully presenting the richness of the Catholic intellectual tradition embodies what we strive to instill in our students,” Kilpatrick continued. “His call to evangelize through beauty, goodness, and truth will provide powerful inspiration for our graduating class as they prepare to lead with light in their future endeavors.”

Sharing his gratitude for the opportunity to return to his alma mater, where he earned master’s degree in philosophy in 1982, Barron said: “I am honored to accept The Catholic University of America’s invitation to deliver an address during this year’s commencement ceremony.” 

In recent years, Barron has delivered multiple commencement addresses, including at University of St. Thomas in Houston in 2021, Benedictine College in 2022, and Hillsdale College in 2023. Barron has also spoken at the headquarters of Google and Facebook, and has appeared on various networks, including CNN, Fox News, and EWTN. 

Commencement will take place on May 17 at 10 a.m. ET. Approximately 1,300 degrees are scheduled to be awarded to graduate and undergraduate students.

“The foolishness of divine condescension urges that we lay aside our educated conceit in approaching the biblical words. It calls for intellectual humility in which the mind bows before the mystery,” Hahn indicated during his April 4, 2025, address. / Credit: Screenshot courtesy of Harvard Catholic Forum

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Apr 7, 2025 / 13:01 pm (CNA).

Professor Scott Hahn on Friday, April 4, spoke to Harvard’s Catholic Church, St. Paul’s, about the saving truth of Scripture. 

Hahn, one of today’s most well-known American Catholic scholars, has authored over 40 books on theology and apologetics. He is founder and president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and is devoted to equipping Catholics with a deeper understanding of Scripture and Catholic doctrine.

Returning to Boston for the event hosted by the Harvard Catholic Forum, Hahn noted the city “still feels like a second home” to him after attending Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and previously living in the area.

“The Christian community, especially the Catholic community, is so unique. It’s good to be back, and it’s good to see it growing and getting better,” Hahn said, reflecting on the Harvard Catholic Forum. “It’s a gem.”

Hahn said his hope for the lecture — and his main prayer request in anticipation of the event — was to build bridges.

“In an intellectual community as high-powered as Harvard, you have many gifted people from a wide range of backgrounds,” he said. His goal was to have the truth of Scripture resonate with each person, regardless of their background, education, or faith tradition.

His lecture was titled “Veritas: The Saving Truth of Scripture.” As he began, Hahn clarified that a more fitting title would be “Veritas: The Saving Truth and Humility of God’s Word.”

Hahn began by tracing Harvard’s history of “Veritas,” from its original motto of “In Christi Gloriam,” meaning “For the glory of Christ,” in 1650 to its 1692 motto, “Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae,” translated to “Truth for Christ and the Church.” Today, only “Veritas” remains: “Truth.”

The university prides itself on its academic integrity and pursuit of truth across disciplines. As Catholics, Hahn argued, we are called to do the same in our faith.

“As Catholics, we recognize the unique authority of Scripture. At the same time, we don’t reduce God’s word simply to the sacred page,” he said. “Our faith is not a religion of the book, but it is a religion of the word. The word is, first of all, a person: the Word made flesh.”

Through Jesus, especially in his humility, we can better understand Scripture, the inspired word that reflects the mystery of the Incarnate Word. Scripture, Hahn said, both communicates this mystery and participates in it.

The starting point to enter into this mystery, Hahn said, is humility.

“The foolishness of divine condescension urges that we lay aside our educated conceit in approaching the biblical words,” he said. “It calls for intellectual humility in which the mind bows before the mystery.”

This humility is perfectly reflected in the life of Jesus, from his birth as a baby to his death on the cross. “The power of God works through human weakness,” Hahn said.

Hahn used the example of Luke 24 to exemplify Jesus’ humility after the Resurrection. In the story, Jesus prevents two followers, Cleopas and an unnamed friend, from seeing who he is. He walks seven miles with them, explaining the Scriptures. After he finally reveals himself to them, Jesus disappears, leaving them to share the full truth that he has given them.

Hahn explained that the unidentified character in the story is not a mystery to be solved but rather “an invitation to the reader to identify ourselves as that, walking on the road and sharing this unique experience of Jesus.”

As we walk along this path, we learn about the Word Incarnate through the written word. The Scripture that Jesus explained to Cleopas and the unnamed friend, the Old Testament, is essential for us to understand Jesus, who is the fulfillment of this Scripture.

“The New Testament is quite unintelligible theologically apart from the whole,” Hahn said. The early Church understood Jesus within the context of the Old Testament, and we are called to do the same, he said.

While Jesus exemplified extreme humility in his earthly ministry, he continues to come humbly to us today, as Hahn reminded the audience: “The Eternal Word also gives himself to us as common bread.”

To reject this truth of Jesus in the Eucharist is to reject Scripture, he said. “Ignorance of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist is a form of ignorance of Christ himself,” Hahn said, quoting Pope Benedict XVI.

In the pursuit of veritas, both at Harvard and in our Catholic faith, Hahn closed the talk with an invitation: “I would conclude by inviting all of us, Christians or not, to take the Lord at his word, and above all to open our hearts to the Word made flesh.”

The full lecture can be seen below.

Monsignor Charles Pope is the author of the new book “The Hell There Is: An Exploration of an Often-Rejected Doctrine of the Church.” / Credit: “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo”/EWTN News screenshot

National Catholic Register, Apr 7, 2025 / 10:07 am (CNA).

Many people underestimate the reality of hell and the possibility they may end up there, pastor and author Monsignor Charles Pope said.

He said 21 of the 38 parables in the Gospels are about hell (often referred to as Gehenna) — including the rich man and Lazarus, the wise and foolish virgins, the weeds and the wheat, and the sheep and the goats.

“Nobody loves you and me more than Jesus, and yet nobody spoke of hell more than Jesus,” Pope explained on the April 3 edition of “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo.”

Pope, a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., is the author of a new book titled “The Hell There Is: An Exploration of an Often-Rejected Doctrine of the Church,” published by TAN Books and available at the EWTN Religious Catalogue.

“Jesus warns that many are on the wrong path. And we’ve got to stop and make a decision and be more urgent about this thing in our life,” he said.

“And if I can say one thing about the Church today, we don’t have any sense of urgency,” he added. “Everyone [assumes] ‘The deal is done; who needs to be saved? We’re already — it’s already taken care of.’ And that’s not true.”

Even many daily Mass-goers reject hell, he said, which he chalked up to what he called “a cultural trend where I think we’ve reduced love to mere kindness.”

It’s possible for people to go to hell because people are free to choose God or to reject God, he said.

“You can’t force someone to love you. And that’s why there’s a hell,” said Pope, pastor of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian Roman Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., near Capitol Hill. “It’s not about an angry God trying to keep people out of heaven but rather a deeply loving God who is very reverential of our freedom, and he stands at the door and knocks. He doesn’t barge in.”

“And we have to recover a sense that we have a decision to make, whether we really want to be with God in heaven one day — the real heaven, not a made-up one,” he continued. “And so that’s why I wrote the book. I wanted to recast the teaching to get rid of this notion that somehow we’re saying there’s a mean, angry God who just doesn’t like people and wants to keep them out.”

Pope said he’s not so worried “about people who know how to come to confession” who are “struggling” and “have habitual sins of some sort.”

“This is very common in the human family, but they know it’s wrong and they go to God and they say, ‘I’m sorry, I need help.’ And that’s beautiful in its own way, you know, and God wants to help and will free them,” Pope said.

“But the ones I’m worried about,” he continued, “are the defiant, who shake their fist against the Church and the teachings of Scripture and say, ‘Look, I will not be told what to do. I’m going to celebrate my lifestyle, celebrate my abortion, celebrate a lifestyle that God calls an abomination,’ whatever, or celebrate greed or violence. ‘And I don’t think there’s anything wrong. I don’t need forgiveness.’”

Pope said a lack of urgency about salvation afflicts not only laypeople but is “among the clergy and bishops,” too.

“We’re all distracted by minor worldly things and souls are being lost. And it’s like, ‘You need to make everybody feel nice and feel included.’ But what if they’re going to hell?” Pope said.

A second reason to emphasize what’s at stake in the spiritual battle for heaven and against hell, he said, is that without the battle for heaven, “there’s also no joy.”

“If you don’t know the bad news,” he said, “the Good News is no news.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

The 2025 Father John H. Morgan Scholars receive honors at the 35th annual Salute to Catholic School Alumni dinner in downtown Louisville at Galt House Hotel on March 18, 2025. A senior from each of the nine high schools in the Archdiocese of Louisville was awarded a $10,000 college scholarship and recognized at the dinner. / Credit: Catholic Education Foundation

CNA Staff, Apr 7, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A Catholic scholarship program in the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky, that has spent decades providing tuition support for families who want to send their children to Catholic schools is now setting its sights on future generations.

Catholic Education Foundation (CEF) president Richard Lechleiter recently told CNA that he plans to make the organization last for generations by growing its resources through a $100 million capital campaign — the largest campaign in the history of the archdiocese.

Donors have already pledged $80 million of the capital campaign goal.

Lechleiter told CNA that when he looks back on his own childhood — growing up the fourth of nine children — he believes he would have needed the resources his organization now provides to students across the archdiocese.

He said Catholic education was “extremely important” to Lechleiter’s parents. All nine children attended Catholic school, and eight out of nine went to Catholic universities.

“I’m a Catholic school kid,” he told CNA.

While growing up in Louisville, most of the diocesan Catholic schools were staffed by religious orders such as the Dominican sisters, the Ursuline sisters, and the Xaverian Brothers — this helped the schools remain relatively affordable.

“If you fast forward that to today’s world, I would have been a CEF kid for sure,” he said.

After a successful career as an executive of a health care services company based in Kentucky, Lechleiter said he hopes to give back.

“The gift was given to us, and now it’s my responsibility to pay it back,” he said.

The capital campaign is timely, coming months after a school choice ballot referendum failed to pass in November 2024.

Government-funded school choice programs are nonexistent in Kentucky as the state constitution prohibits them.

“We are school choice,” Lechleiter said simply. “We’re the only form of school choice around here, and we have to dramatically increase our funding because the state’s not going to do anything.”

‘The answer is yes’ 

A small team of eight operates the Catholic Education Foundation, which has been providing scholarships for Catholic school families since 1999. 

“The first year, we helped 220 kids with $110,000 of scholarships in ‘99,” Lechleiter said. “Last fall, we hit a record 3,750 kids with $8.3 million — also a record in scholarship funding.” 

That record reflects a doubling in the number of students the CEF supports since just five years ago.

For a decade, CEF has been operating with the motto: “The answer is yes.” 

“That was an invitation for families to come to us, to reach out to us. It was also an inspiration to donors to join us,” Lechleiter explained. “We launched that in 2014, and our numbers have jumped dramatically as a result of it.” 

But Lechleiter said they needed growth. School enrollment was suffering when they launched the motto more than 10 years ago. 

“But we were reaching a point in which more and more families couldn’t afford it,” he recalled. “Some of our school enrollments were really suffering to the point in which you question their existence going forward.” 

But the motto inspired everyone — staff, donors, and families. 

“We’ve really taken off,” Lechleiter said. “Quite honestly, we needed to do that because there were so many more families, the cost was getting to a point, which, as it does in other cities, where a lot of lower income and middle income families can’t afford it.” 

“Every single family that reached out to us that qualified for an award got one,” he continued. “We didn’t turn anybody away in 10 straight years. So that’s the miracle behind this thing.”

“We created that slogan to inspire people, but it’s become a mandate now to fund every family that comes forward, and hopefully we’ll continue that,” he said.

Keeping schools open

CEF plays a unique role because it coordinates with local school awards and archdiocesan awards, meaning that no one gets left behind.

“Because when you close a school, everybody loses,” Lechleiter explained. 

Catholic schools have made an impact in Louisville for a long time. 

“At our height in the ’60s, we had 72 elementary schools, 13 high schools — it was way over 30,000 kids,” Lechleiter said. “People long before me figured out that Louisville is a lot better place to live with more Catholic schools.” 

At St. Rita Catholic School, a parochial school in a working-class neighborhood in South Louisville, CEF supports 92% of students.

“Without our donors, St. Rita’s doesn’t exist,” Lechleiter said. 

At St. Andrew Academy in southwestern Louisville, it’s the same, Lechleiter explained. 

“We fund 94% of the kids in that building,” he said. “Again, without our donors, there is no Catholic school in that neighborhood.” 

The foundation’s launch followed a burst of school closings in the 1970s. But Catholic schools have been on the up and up since, Lechleiter said. 

“Since we kicked off this program 10 years ago, we’ve only had one school closing,” he explained, adding: “Last fall was the fourth year in a row that our school enrollments rose from the previous year.”

Catholic schools around the world have turned out successful students. A recent Australian study based on government data found that people who had attended Catholic schools saw “lifelong benefits” in their employment, health, and general life satisfaction.

But what makes Louisville Catholic schools unique, Lechleiter said, is the high likelihood that graduating students will attend college.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor. If you start in kindergarten at any of our schools, and you go all the way through 12th grade in any of our schools, the likelihood that you will enroll in a two-year or four-year college is 96%,” he said. “It’s unheard of.”

Lechleiter said he hopes to grow the organization so that it will endure for future students. 

The foundation’s endowment was originally funded with nearly $16 million by the late Archbishop Thomas Kelly, archbishop of Louisville at the time and founder of the foundation. 

“Our ultimate goal is to get the funded endowment to $100 million,” Lechleiter said. “And then it’ll be sustainable, and it’ll be multigenerational. That’s the beauty of what we’re trying to do.”

A fishing boat returns to Bridlington Harbor after a day at sea on Jan. 31, 2025, in Bridlington, England. Bridlington is the leading shellfish port in Europe. / Credit: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Apr 7, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A major U.K.-based Catholic seafarers ministry is calling on regulatory authorities to push for better labor conditions for workers in the seafood and fishing industries. 

Stella Maris, a support ministry for sea workers that boasts “the largest ship-visiting network in the world,” said in a statement to CNA that seafood certification programs “must adopt a stronger commitment to human rights due diligence” to ensure “labor protections,” “fair pay, safe working conditions,” and other measures to protect workers on the sea. 

Tim Hill, the organization’s CEO and national director, shared Stella Maris’ position paper with CNA in which the group called on “seafood certification bodies, governments, and industry leaders to take immediate and positive action” to secure those goals.

The industry should “work together to create a seafood industry that respects human dignity and ethical practices,” the group said. 

‘Every seafarer deserves fair working conditions’

Stella Maris originated in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1920. Originally named Apostleship of the Sea, the organization offers “practical and pastoral support, information, and a friend in times of need” to those who work on the water. 

In 2012, then-Pope Benedict XVI hailed the group’s “affectionate attention to those who cannot receive ordinary pastoral care.”

The Holy Father at the time addressed fishermen “who seek decent and safe working conditions, safeguarding the dignity of your families, the protection of the environment, and the defense of every person’s dignity,” assuring those workers of “the Church’s closeness,” including through the sea ministry. 

Though it has long offered religious ministry to seaworkers, Stella Maris has also advocated for improved labor conditions. Last year it called on the British government to take action to protect fishermen amid reports of modern-day slavery and human trafficking among shippers. 

In its recent call for improved labor conditions, the group pointed to the U.N.’s International Labor Organization Convention 188, which set forth a list of protections for fishing workers, including wage requirements and occupational safety. 

Many fishing nations “have yet to ratify” the document, Stella Maris said, “leaving fishers vulnerable to exploitation, forced labor, and unsafe conditions.”

The group said it advocates the ratification of those labor standards as well as other measures such as crackdowns on illegal fishing, labor trafficking, excessive working hours, and stolen wages. 

Also important, the group said, is access to Wi-Fi internet on fishing boats.

“Many fishers often spend long periods at sea in isolation, making it hard for them to contact the outside world, impacting their mental health and ability to report abuse,” Stella Maris said. Wi-Fi access can serve to help fishers “report problems and learn about their rights.”

Praising the ministry for its spiritual and material support of fishing workers, Pope Francis in 2022 urged Stella Maris to continue “drawing attention to the issues which deprive many within the maritime community of their God-given human dignity.”

Stella Maris, meanwhile, in its paper called for “effective oversight mechanisms” for certification programs as well as “greater transparency, accountability, and collaboration with civil society” on the part of seafood leaders.

Unions and welfare groups “should be at the center” of the certification process, they argued, to “verify working conditions on boats and in processing places.” Violators, meanwhile, should be required to implement plans to address labor issues.

The group said it would continue working “to create a seafood industry that upholds human dignity, justice, and ethical responsibility.”

Pope Francis at the Jubilee of the Sick in St. Peter's Square on Sunday, April 6, 2025, wearing nasal cannulas for supplemental oxygen as he continues recovering from bilateral pneumonia. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News

CNA Newsroom, Apr 6, 2025 / 07:32 am (CNA).

Still recovering from bilateral pneumonia that hospitalized him for nearly 40 days, Pope Francis made a surprise appearance in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday for the Jubilee of the Sick, sharing profound reflections on suffering, care, and the transformative power of illness.

Wearing nasal cannulas that provide supplemental oxygen, Pope Francis arrived in a wheelchair accompanied by a nurse.

Hundreds of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square on April 6, receiving him enthusiastically around 11:45 a.m. local time.

In his homily for the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers, which was read aloud by Archbishop Rino Fisichella as the pope continues his recovery, Francis drew inspiration from the prophet Isaiah and the day’s Gospel reading to explore the spiritual dimensions of illness and healing.

The pontiff said that “the sickbed can become a ‘holy place’ of salvation and redemption, both for the sick and for those who care for them.”

“I have much in common with you at this time of my life, dear brothers and sisters who are sick: the experience of illness, of weakness, of having to depend on others in so many things, and of needing their support,” the pope told his audience.

“This is not always easy, but it is a school in which we learn each day to love and to let ourselves be loved, without being demanding or pushing back, without regrets and without despair, but rather with gratitude to God and to our brothers and sisters for the kindness we receive, looking toward the future with acceptance and trust.”

The 88-year-old pontiff invited the faithful to contemplate the Israelites’ situation in exile, as Isaiah described. “It seemed that all was lost,” Francis noted, but added that it was precisely in this moment of trial that “a new people was being born.” He connected this biblical experience to the woman in the day’s Gospel reading who had been condemned and ostracized for her sins.

Her accusers, ready to cast the first stone, were halted by the quiet authority of Jesus, the pope’s homily explained.

In comparing these stories, Pope Francis emphasized that God does not wait for our lives to be perfect before intervening.

“Illness is certainly one of the harshest and most difficult of life’s trials, when we experience in our own flesh our common human frailty. It can make us feel like the people in exile, or like the woman in the Gospel: deprived of hope for the future,” the pontiff’s homily said.

“Yet that is not the case. Even in these times, God does not leave us alone, and if we surrender our lives to him, precisely when our strength fails, we will be able to experience the consolation of his presence. By becoming man, he wanted to share our weakness in everything.”

Pope Francis thanked all health care workers for their service in a particularly moving passage: “Dear doctors, nurses, and health care workers, in caring for your patients, especially the most vulnerable among them, the Lord constantly affords you an opportunity to renew your lives through gratitude, mercy, and hope.”

The pontiff encouraged them to receive every patient as an opportunity to renew their sense of humanity. His words acknowledged the challenges facing medical workers, including inadequate working conditions and even instances of aggression against them.

Bringing his address to a close, the pontiff recalled the encyclical Spe Salvi of Pope Benedict XVI, who reminded the Church that “the true measure of humanity is determined in relation to suffering.” Francis warned, with the words of his predecessor, that “a society unable to accept its suffering members is a cruel and inhuman society.”

The Holy Father urged all present to resist the temptation to marginalize and forget the elderly, ill, or those weighed down by life’s hardships: “Dear friends, let us not exclude from our lives those who are frail, as at times, sadly, a certain mentality does today.”

‘I feel the finger of God’

In his brief Angelus remarks following the Mass, the pope shared his personal experience: “Dear friends, as during my hospitalization, even now in my convalescence I feel the ‘finger of God’ and experience his caring touch.”

The pope also called for prayers for all who suffer and for health care professionals, urging investment in necessary resources for care and research, so that health care systems may be inclusive and attend to the most fragile and poor.

Pope Francis concluded with a plea for peace in conflict zones, including Ukraine, Gaza, the Middle East, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, and Haiti.

The Holy See has not yet commented on whether Pope Francis will participate in Holy Week ceremonies, with the Vatican press office indicating that “it is premature to discuss this” and assuring that further details will be provided later.