The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration from the Our Lady of Solitude Monastery in Tonopah, Arizona, accompanied by their local priest. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Mother Marie Andre Campbell

CNA Staff, Aug 11, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Aug. 11 the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Clare of Assisi, a woman born into a noble family who was moved by St. Francis’ preaching and decided to embrace a life of poverty, founding a cloistered contemplative order of religious sisters called the Poor Clares.

The order spread rapidly throughout Italy with young noblewomen selling all their possessions to take on the habit of a Poor Clare. In 1218, the order began to spread outside the Italian border. Agnes of Assisi, Clare’s sister who also became a Poor Clare soon after she did, introduced their way of life to Spain. Soon monasteries in Belgium, France, and other European countries began to open.

Branches within the order include the Colettine Poor Clares, Capuchin Poor Clares, and the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration.

The Poor Clares follow the Rule of St. Clare — which was approved by Pope Innocent IV two days before Clare’s death in 1253 — and take vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity.

Mother Marie André is a Poor Clare of Perpetual Adoration at the Our Lady of Solitude Monastery in Tonopah, Arizona. She has been a religious sister for 31 years and abbess of the monastery since 2016.

The third of four daughters, Mother Marie André grew up in a military home as her father was in the Navy. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, she wanted to enter a government service such as the CIA, Drug Enforcement Administration, or FBI. 

“I actually interviewed with all those,” she told CNA. “And every time I did, something strange would come up and it would never go through.”

While working in San Diego and feeling “a little frustrated because I didn’t know what the Lord wanted of me,” Mother Marie André went on a trip to Irondale, Alabama, to visit her best friend, who had just entered Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, the monastery Mother Angelica founded in the 1960s. (Mother Angelica later launched EWTN from the monastery in 1981.)

“I had met Mother Angelica and she had said to me, ‘We’ll take care of you.’ And I thought, well, it probably was that I would be working at the network,” Mother Marie André explained. “So, I left and when I got home just a couple weeks later, I really felt like the Lord called me to that life like a bolt out of the blue. That was March of 1994. I entered in September of 1994.”

Mother Marie André explained that she considered becoming a Dominican sister; however, the contemplative life appealed to her. Additionally, growing up in California, she was surrounded by the missions, which were founded by Franciscan priests; cities there were named after Franciscan saints; and, surprisingly, each of her sisters was born on a Franciscan feast day.

“I felt like the Lord had maybe planted the seed long before, and then it bloomed as I got older,” she said.

The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration originated in France and was founded on Dec. 8, 1854, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, by Pope Pius IX. Mother Marie Claire Bouillevaux, the order’s foundress, wanted to start an order that combined the Franciscan form of living with a special devotion to Eucharistic adoration in the spirit of thanksgiving.

In 1921, the first American foundation was established by Mother M. Agnes in the Diocese of Cleveland. From there a foundation was established in Canton, Ohio. By 1962, Mother Mary Angelica was the abbess of the new foundation in Birmingham, Alabama: Our Lady of the Angels Monastery. In 1981, Mother Angelica founded Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the first Catholic cable satellite network. Then in 1987 she founded an order of priests and brothers, known as the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word (MFVA).

To allow for the growth of both EWTN and the MFVA friars, Our Lady of the Angels Monastery transferred to a new location in Hanceville, Alabama, in late 1999. It is from Our Lady of the Angels Monastery that the Our Lady of Solitude Monastery in the Diocese of Phoenix was established in 2005.

“That is our whole life — of thanksgiving, reparative thanksgiving, where our life really cycles around Our Lord’s presence,” Mother Marie André explained.

Mother Marie André expressed that next to the Mass, adoration is “the most important aspect of our faith because we have before us Our Lord present in the holy Eucharist, body, blood, soul, and divinity.”

The monastery sits just six miles away from a major highway in Arizona. Mother Marie André shared that many times she finds herself wondering if the people driving by “know who’s in the midst of them as they’re driving back and forth.” 

The religious sister encouraged anyone seeking the Lord to “just set a little bit of time aside for him.” 

“It’s difficult times we live in. Just pop your head in to see him and I guarantee that he’ll assist you. His loving presence will fill you with peace and grace. All we have to say is, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening,’ and in any difficulty, any trial, any blessing, too — you won’t regret it.”

The sisters start their day early and follow a regulated schedule of prayer, daily Mass, mealtimes, work time, Holy Hours, and recreation. 

“I have always believed, from when I entered years ago, that it was the perfect balance of the day, and that’s because I’m called to live it,” Mother Marie André shared.

When asked what she would tell someone discerning religious life, she said: “Step out in courage and faith.”

“We have to kind of slow down, walk beside him or even behind him saying, ‘Lord, you know whatever you want. I say yes,’” she explained. “All, really, that matters is that you say yes to the Lord and you are able to receive the grace to say, ‘Whatever you want. May your holy will be done.’”

It is for this same reason that Mother Marie André sees St. Clare as such an important saint.

“She really put all of her trust in the Lord — total trust in his divine providence,” she said. “That’s what Mother Angelica did and that’s what we’re all required to do. The way is not always clear. It wasn’t clear for holy Mother Clare, but we just have to be patient and trust. And that’s what she was because she really believed with Jesus that we don’t have anything to fear.”

Today there are 27 monasteries of Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration around the world in countries including France, Bangladesh, India, Germany, and Poland.

This story was first published on Aug. 11, 2023, and has been updated.

Pope Leo XIV in his Sunday Angelus on Aug. 10, 2025, urged the faithful to reflect on how they invest the “treasure” that is their life. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Newsroom, Aug 10, 2025 / 08:20 am (CNA).

In his Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV urged the faithful to reflect on how they invest the “treasure” that is their life, challenging Catholics to share not only material possessions but also their skills, time, and compassion for the good of others.

Drawing on the Gospel reading from Luke 12:32-48, the pope emphasized that generosity and love are the keys to fulfillment, reminding the crowd that these gifts must be cultivated and put at the service of others, rather than hoarded or misused.

“Sell your possessions and give alms,” Jesus exhorts in the passage. Pope Leo made clear that this invitation extends beyond charitable donations, pressing his audience to offer their presence, love, and talents to those most in need. “Everything in God’s plan that makes each of us a priceless and unrepeatable good must be cultivated and invested in order to grow. Otherwise, these gifts dry up and diminish in value,” he warned.

The pontiff’s remarks on Aug. 10 echoed the teachings of St. Augustine, who Leo quoted verbatim: “What you give will certainly be transformed...it isn’t gold, it isn’t silver, but eternal life that will come your way.”

Drawing on St. John Paul II, Leo also emphasized the spiritual transformation that results from acts of mercy. Highlighting the example of the poor widow from Mark’s Gospel, Leo XIV called works of mercy “the most secure and profitable bank” where believers can place their lives’ treasures.

The pope also underscored the importance of vigilance in daily life — at home, parish, school, or workplace — encouraging all “to grow in the habit of being attentive, ready, and sensitive to one another.” He invoked Mary, the Morning Star, as a guide for the Church’s mission of mercy and peace in a world “marked by many divisions.”

Members of The Catholic University of America Office of Campus Ministry receive their RISE Award from the Associates of St. John Bosco. / Credit: Photo courtesy of The Cartiedas

CNA Staff, Aug 10, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

As more efforts are placed on reaching young adults on college campuses, one organization is encouraging Catholic campus ministries to think outside the box when it comes to helping students grow in faith and reach those who are unfamiliar with the Gospel message.

As part of its campaign to inspire new and creative outreach efforts on college campuses, the Associates of St. John Bosco (ASJB) recently announced its first-ever winners of the RISE Awards (Renewal of Innovative Student Evangelization) on Aug. 6. The ASJB is a nonprofit whose purpose is to help college students keep and grow in their Catholic faith.

This year’s winners include George Mason University, The Catholic University of America (CUA), and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). The three Catholic campus ministries have been selected to receive a total of $25,000 in funding for their standout evangelization plans, which aim to engage students with the Catholic faith.

Currently the awards are only eligible to college campuses in Washington, D.C.; Maryland; and Virginia, but the ASJB hopes to expand its reach.

According to the press release, George Mason University’s Catholic campus ministry won for its new approach to outreach that brings together student athletes from different sports who are interested in creating a community rooted in Christ. From there, these students will become “ambassadors,” wearing GMUCCM (George Mason University Catholic Campus Ministry) gear to attract fellow athletes to the small group and the ministry at large.

CUA’s campus ministry’s new innovative approach includes outdoor Eucharistic adoration on campus with praise and worship music and confession on the first Saturday of students’ return to campus as well as during Family Weekend in the fall. The goal is to cast a wide net to students and families in the hope that more will encounter Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 

Finally, Virginia Tech’s Catholic campus ministry received an award for its “Pour Into Others” program through a new coffee shop for students. The cafe will be open once a week at the same time Eucharistic adoration is taking place in the Newman Center. The goal is to bring students to the coffee shop and invite them to experience Eucharistic adoration as well as encourage them to attend other events being hosted by campus ministry.

Danielle Zuccaro, executive director of ASJB, told CNA “the response has been unbelievable” to their new campaign and the RISE Awards. 

Zuccaro has been working with ASJB for the past 15 years. She explained that the inspiration came from its founder, Father Christopher Vaccaro, who was previously a college chaplain at the University of Mary Washington for nine years. 

“[He] really noticed that campus ministries were often strapped for funds and also, sometimes lacking in creativity,” Zuccaro shared. “So, we thought that creativity could be generated by incentivizing campus ministries to come up with creative evangelization projects and we would award them money to help fund those projects.”

“This year we were awarding $25,000. So, if schools had always wanted to do a certain project but never had the money, they could apply for a specific amount that they needed,” she added. “But, it had to be a creative project that was outside of the box and would serve a specific demographic on their campus.

The winning ministries are also required to submit a video showcasing how they carried out their project as well as a project plan, which will then be housed on the ASJB website so that any college campus in the U.S. could use the same project plan and execute the evangelization projects on their own campuses.

Zuccaro said she hopes “that the widest net is cast to reach as many students as possible.” 

“That’s always what we say in our organization, that we want to reach as far and wide as possible,” she said, “and the hope is that these campus ministries are casting a wide net as well and that they’re ministering to students that they may not have otherwise reached.”

Father Mike Schmitz before his show in Vail, Colorado, as part of his Parables Tour. / Credit: Daniel Milchev

CNA Staff, Aug 10, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

While many know him best for his popular “Bible in a Year” podcast, Ascension videos, and inspiring talks he gives across the country, Father Mike Schmitz is first and foremost the chaplain at the Newman Center at the University of Minnesota, Duluth (UMD). 

This fall Schmitz will mark his 21st year working in campus ministry, which he called “the best of both worlds” in a recent sit-down interview with CNA in Vail, Colorado, during his Parables Tour. The tour is part of Schmitz’s Seeds of Faith Campaign, which is raising funds for a new Newman Center to be built on the UMD campus.

The 50-year-old priest explained that while he has loved working in both parish and campus settings, each is unique. While college kids can tend to be “fickle” in their faith, he said, they also have a beautiful openness to change that he didn’t experience at a parish.

“College ministry is unique because you have this openness … It is that place where so many people are asking the big questions in life and we just see so many conversions happening when we’re there,” he said.

The Newman Center at UMD has seen a flourishing of vocations. According to Bulldog Catholic, the name of the university’s campus ministry, 400 couples have gone through marriage preparation classes, eight women have entered religious life, and over 16 men have entered seminary, with seven ordained as priests.

“One of my favorite things to do is marriage prep; it just really brings me so much life,” Schmitz said. “I just love even being able to present to couples who are discerning marriage like, no you’re actually discerning how God is asking you, calling you, to be his disciple in your life. That’s the big question. That’s one of the reasons why we get married in churches is because this is a sacrament of discipleship.”

As for those who have discerned religious life, Schmitz called it “a great grace” to walk with these individuals in their vocations.

He highlighted the alarming statistic of nearly 85% of Catholic young adults falling away from the Church while in college and emphasized that at UMD “we want to put a stop to that. So I love being able to even do our little part in Duluth to help that.”

He also pointed out the hope he believes Pope Leo XIV’s papacy could bring to young Catholics.

“I think something about Pope Leo coming from America … I think what it does is, or can do, is it can once again make it real in the sense of bringing it closer to my own home and closer to my life of saying, ‘The pope isn’t just some person from far far off, but Chicago, and here’s the picture of him at the White Sox game.’ And you’re like, ‘Oh, OK. So, God is closer than we think.’”

He added: “[T]here’s been this resurgence in people asking the question, ‘How do we become Catholic?’ Why? Because, I don’t know, maybe something as simple as that — that having a pope who came from this country reminds us that God is closer than we think.”

Advice for others in campus ministry 

For others working in campus ministry, Schmitz gave three suggestions to grow involvement: Offer daily Mass and confession, start engaging Bible studies, and host retreats often.

He emphasized that these events in which people are brought together, such as Bible studies and retreats, help grow involvement because “as Catholics we worship in rows, but we grow in circles.”

Adding to this idea of growing in circles, Schmitz said individuals “need to actually walk with people — not just kind of anonymously go to Mass, anonymously pray at Mass, anonymously leave, but to be able to also say, ‘There’s someone here who knows me.’ And so we need to do small groups.”

Lastly, he urged the need for retreats because “the world is so loud that we need the opportunity for students to be able to just leave, even for a weekend, encounter the Lord in a way that again he’s real, he’s good, he does have a plan for their lives, so that then they can come back to the world [and] go back to campus with that.”

As for what he hopes the students at UMD take away from their time at the Newman Center, he explained that it’s not just about accompanying the students through college so that they become “slightly more devout or pious … no, we’re here to prepare you to be martyrs. And what I mean by that is to be witnesses to your faith in every situation, in every season, wherever you’re called, no matter what it costs.”

Twenty-four-year-old Father Miguel Tovar of the Diocese of Cartagena, Spain. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Diocese of Cartagena

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 9, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Father Miguel Tovar is 24 years old and one of the youngest priests in Spain. After his ordination on July 5 in the Diocese of Cartagena, he and his parents visited Rome and met Pope Leo XIV, who encouraged him to never lose “the joy of the priesthood.”

“What a great gift from the Lord, one month after my priestly ordination, to be able to greet the pope. The Holy Father encouraged me to be faithful and not to lose the joy of the priesthood in prayer,” Tovar wrote on Aug. 7 on X.

Tovar said that after telling the pope he had been ordained very recently, Pope Leo XIV told him: “Be faithful. Many priests lose their joy. Never lose the joy of the priesthood, which you will always find through prayer.”

Upon learning that Tovar’s parents had accompanied him to Rome, Leo XIV replied: “Are they [over] there? Tell them to come!” 

Tovar wrote that the pope “congratulated them for giving their 24-year-old son to the Church.”

The pontiff also said that he is familiar with Murcia, the region in which Tovar lives, and that he is praying for the young man from Murcia who was recently hospitalized in Rome. 

He then blessed the priest and his parents as well as the stole conferred at Tovar’s diaconal ordination.

Tovar’s journey to the priesthood

In an interview published days before his ordination, Tovar said: “When the Lord calls you, the fear can rise up that God is going to take everything away from you. But it’s quite the opposite. Over these years, I’ve seen that when you give your life to God, he gives you everything.”

Born in Torrealta, a small town in Murcia, Tovar grew up in a happy, Christian home with his parents, twin brother, and older sister.

In the interview, the priest shared that he felt God’s calling at age 13, but it wasn’t until he was 18, in 2019, that he finally entered the St. Fulgentius Major Seminary.

Tovar chose “His mercy endures forever” as his priestly motto.

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

Daniel O'Connell, lithograph attributed to R. Evan Sly (EP OCON-DA (17) II) from the National Library of Ireland. / Credit: National Library of Ireland

Dublin, Ireland, Aug 9, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Daniel O’Connell, known as “The Liberator,” was a pivotal figure in 19th-century Ireland, championing the cause of Catholic emancipation.

Opposed to violence, he advocated for Catholic rights through peaceful means, emphasizing dialogue and legal reform, and organizing mass demonstrations to rally public support and raise awareness about the injustices faced by Catholics.

“Daniel O’Connell’s achievement in forcing the British government to concede Catholic emancipation in 1829 was immense,” Bishop Niall Coll of Ossory told CNA. “The penal laws, a series of oppressive statutes enacted in the 17th and early 18th centuries that targeted the Catholic majority in Ireland, restricting their rights to own land, hold public office, and practice their religion were set aside.”

O’Connell’s efforts culminated in the passage of the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which allowed Catholics to sit in Parliament and hold public office and significantly transformed Irish politics.

O’Connell was born in 1775 in Caherciveen in rural Kerry. His parents had managed to maintain their land despite the penal laws, thanks to their remoteness, business sense, and help from Protestant neighbors. O’Connell’s earliest years, until he was 4, were spent with an Irish-speaking family that instilled in him an inherent understanding of Irish peasant life. 

After studying in France at the English Colleges in St. Omer and Douai during the French Revolution, he returned to Ireland, completed his studies, and was called to the bar. In 1802, then a successful barrister, he married a distant cousin, Mary O’Connell, and they had 12 children — seven of whom survived to adulthood. In 1823 he founded the Catholic Association with the express aim of securing emancipation.

O’Connell’s early experiences were critical to his political and social formation, according to Jesuit historian Father Fergus O’Donoghue, who told CNA that O’Connell’s exposure to European influences undoubtedly shaped his character, his opposition to violence, and his deep-seated opposition to tyranny.

“He witnessed the French Revolution, which appalled him and set his heart completely against violence,” O’Donoghue told CNA. “What Daniel O’Connell really did was produce a political sense in Ireland that was never previously generated. Irish Catholics lived in appalling poverty and were neglected. He energized them. He brought Church and laity together into politics and constitutionalism.”

O’Donoghue explained how O’Connell’s arousal of a nationwide Irish Catholic consciousness impacted politics and society but also had far-reaching consequences beyond Irish shores. 

“When Irish Catholics emigrated, which of course many were forced to do, many of them were already politically aware. That’s why Irish people got so rapidly into American politics and into Australian politics later.”

“He was part of the enormous revival of Irish Catholicism in the 19th century. Before the Act of Union, various relief acts had been passed so Catholics officially could become things like judges or sheriffs, but none really were appointed in numbers. He was blistering in highlighting the difference between the law and reality. He was liberal, which amazed people; he believed strongly in parliamentary democracy. Many Catholics were monarchists and tending to be absolutists and he was having none of that. Under no circumstances would he approve of violence.”

Coll told CNA how O’Connell’s personal reputation extended his influence worldwide: “The fact that he could remain a devoted and practicing Catholic — while supporting the separation of church and state, the ending of Anglican privileges and discrimination based on religious affiliation, and the extension of individual liberties, including those in the sphere of politics — made him a hero and inspiration to Catholic liberals in many European countries.”

Coll continued: “The fact that his political movement was based upon popular support and the mobilization of the mass of the people, while yet being nonviolent and orderly, gave proof that political agitation did not necessarily have to be anticlerical or bloody. The attention his movement and opinions received in the continental European press was remarkable, as were the number and distinction of European writers and political figures who visited Ireland with the express purpose of securing an audience with O’Connell.”

Coll agreed firmly with historians who believe no other Irish political figure of the 19th or early 20th century enjoyed such an international reputation as did O’Connell throughout his later public career. 

Among those whom O’Connell also influenced were Eamon de Valera, president of Ireland; Frederick Douglass, social reformer and slavery abolitionist in the United States; and Gen. Charles de Gaulle. Indeed, de Gaulle, when on an extended visit to Ireland, insisted on visiting Derrynane House in Kerry, the home of Daniel O’Connell. 

When asked how he knew about O’Connell, de Gaulle replied: “My grandmother wrote a book about O’Connell.” The grandmother in question was Joséphine de Gaulle (née Maillot), a descendant of the McCartans of County Down and his paternal grandmother, who wrote “Daniel O’Connell, Le Libérateur de l’Irlande” in 1887. De Gaulle’s father, Henri, was also a historian interested in O’Connell. 

In The Tablet, Dermot McCarthy, former secretary to the Office of the Irish Prime Minister, wrote that O’Connell’s primary legacy was “lifting a demoralized and impoverished Catholic people off their knees to recognize their inherent dignity and realize their capacity to be protagonists of their own destiny.”

Minister for Culture, Communications, and Sport Patrick O’Donovan said last month: “Daniel O’Connell was one of the most important figures in Irish political history, not just for what he achieved, but for how he achieved it. He believed in peaceful reform, in democracy, and in civil rights; ideas and concepts to which we should still aspire today.” 

However, in its official communiques praising O’Connell, the Irish government minister failed to mention the word “Catholic” even once. 

For O’Donoghue, the absence of any Catholic context is unsurprising given the prevailing secular attitudes among many of the country’s politicians. 

Bishop Fintan Monahan, bishop of Killaloe, visited O’Connell’s grave in Rome during the Jubilee for Youth, telling CNA: “In 1847, the Great Famine was at its most severe and O’Connell’s final speech in the House of Commons was an appeal for help for its victims. Due to his physical weakness, this final speech was barely audible.”

O’Connell died in Genoa on May 15, 1847, on the 17th anniversary of the first time he presented himself at the House of Commons.

It was hoped that his heart might be interred in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. However, Pope Pius IX feared offending the British government on whose goodwill Catholic missionaries depended in many parts of the world. A requiem Mass was offered for O’Connell in the Roman baroque basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle. The attendance included the future cardinal, now canonized saint, John Henry Newman. 

O’Connell had said he wished to bequeath “his soul to God, his body to Ireland, and his heart to Rome.”

Children process into the St. Mary al-Tahir Church, also known as the Church of the Immaculate Conception, in Baghdad, for their first Communion. / Credit: Chaldean Catholic Church

ACI MENA, Aug 9, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Eleven years have passed since ISIS seized Mosul and the Nineveh towns and with every anniversary commemorated each year, the same question arises: How many Iraqi Christians remain?

Despite tensions and renewed challenges from regional conflict, Iraqi churches remain full. Just weeks ago, Christians there celebrated joyfully as 1,000 young boys and girls received their first Communion.

In Iraq’s capital, Chaldean parishes celebrated first Communion for 50 children, while 32 others received the sacrament at the Syriac Catholic parish. 

Most significantly, 11 children took their first Communion at the Syriac Catholic Church of Our Lady of Deliverance — the same church that witnessed a horrific massacre in 2010, when dozens of worshippers and two priests were killed and hundreds wounded.

Guarding the deposit of faith

In Qaraqosh (Baghdeda), churches belonging to the Syriac Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul and its dependencies celebrated first Communion for 461 children across three separate ceremonies. Another 30 children received the sacrament in nearby Bashiqa and Bartella, with liturgies led by Archbishop Benedictos Younan Hanno.

During his homilies, Hanno praised the faithful’s determination to stay on their ancestral land and their courage in returning after forced displacement. He commended their commitment to preserving their faith and passing it to their children, who have grown up in stable, united, devoted families.

Some celebrate, others wait

In Basra, Christian families have dwindled to fewer than 350 across all denominations — Chaldean, Armenian, Syriac, Presbyterian, and Latin — yet they remain on their land despite harsh living and environmental conditions. This year, the Chaldean and Syriac Catholic dioceses postponed first Communion celebrations, waiting to gather enough children for next year’s celebration.

In Karemlesh, part of the Chaldean Archdiocese of Mosul, 26 children are preparing to receive the Eucharist. Meanwhile, the Chaldean Diocese of Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah celebrated first Communion for 26 children at Kirkuk’s Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. The Church in Sulaymaniyah, like Basra, is looking ahead to next year.

Towns of northern Iraq

Ankawa’s churches within the Chaldean Diocese of Erbil experienced two extraordinary days. 

Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda presided over three Masses where 210 children received first Communion. In his homilies, he emphasized that the sacrament goes far beyond beautiful photos and white gowns: It represents a lifelong commitment that transforms communicants’ homes into places where Jesus’ presence lives through forgiveness, active listening, and generosity.

Children process into the St. Mary al-Tahir Church, also known as the Church of the Immaculate Conception, in Baghdad, for their first Communion.

Also, in Ankawa, 66 children from the Syriac Catholic Diocese of Adiabene received the Eucharist, along with 15 others in Duhok. In the Chaldean Diocese of Duhok, 75 children celebrated first Communion, while 150 did so in neighboring Zakho Diocese. A similar number in Alqosh Diocese, bereaved of its spiritual shepherd, will receive the sacrament in coming days.

The Syriac Orthodox Church also celebrated first Communion for about 70 children in Bartella and 40 in Ankawa, including children from other denominations.

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

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. / Credit: Public domain

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 9, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Aug. 9 the Catholic Church remembers St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as Edith Stein. St. Teresa converted from Judaism to Catholicism in the course of her work as a philosopher and later entered the Carmelite order. She died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1942.

Stein was born on Oct. 12, 1891 — a date that coincided with her family’s celebration of Yom Kippur, the Jewish “day of atonement.” Stein’s father died when she was just 2 years old, and she gave up the practice of her Jewish faith as an adolescent.

As a young woman with profound intellectual gifts, Stein gravitated toward the study of philosophy and became a pupil of the renowned professor Edmund Husserl in 1913. Through her studies, the nonreligious Stein met several Christians whose intellectual and spiritual lives she admired.

After earning her degree with the highest honors from Gottingen University in 1915, she served as a nurse in an Austrian field hospital during World War I. She returned to academic work in 1916, earning her doctorate after writing a highly-regarded thesis on the phenomenon of empathy. She remained interested in the idea of religious commitment but had not yet made such a commitment herself.

In 1921, while visiting friends, Stein spent an entire night reading the autobiography of the 16th-century Carmelite nun St. Teresa of Ávila. “When I had finished the book,” she later recalled, “I said to myself: This is the truth.” She was baptized into the Catholic Church on the first day of January, 1922.

Stein intended to join the Carmelites immediately after her conversion but would ultimately have to wait another 11 years before taking this step. Instead, she taught at a Dominican school and gave numerous public lectures on women’s issues. She spent 1931 writing a study of St. Thomas Aquinas and took a university teaching position in 1932.

In 1933, the rise of Nazism, combined with her Jewish ethnicity, put an end to her teaching career. After a painful parting with her mother, who did not understand her Christian conversion, she entered a Carmelite convent in 1934, taking the name “Teresa Benedicta of the Cross” as a symbol of her acceptance of suffering.

“I felt,” she wrote, “that those who understood the cross of Christ should take upon themselves on everybody’s behalf.” She saw it as her vocation “to intercede with God for everyone,” but she prayed especially for the Jews of Germany whose tragic fate was becoming clear.

“I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death,” she wrote in 1939, “so that the Lord will be accepted by his people and that his kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world.”

After completing her final work, a study of St. John of the Cross titled “The Science of the Cross,” Teresa Benedicta was arrested along with her sister Rosa (who had also become a Catholic) and the members of her religious community on Aug. 7, 1942. The arrests came in retaliation against a protest letter by the Dutch bishops decrying the Nazi treatment of Jews.

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz on Aug. 9, 1942. Pope John Paul II canonized her in 1998 and proclaimed her a co-patroness of Europe the next year.

This story was first published on Aug. 9, 2011, and has been updated.

President Donald Trump answers questions during a signing ceremony with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (left) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan (right) in the State Dining Room of the White House on Aug. 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The agreement signed during the ceremony is intended to bring an end to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijani that has lasted for decades. / Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 8, 2025 / 18:23 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:

Armenian and Azerbaijan presidents sign historic peace deal at White House

After decades of conflict over the ethnically Armenian-Christian Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a peace deal on Friday, Aug. 8. 

Pashinyan hailed the moment as “opening a chapter of peace” and “laying foundations to a better story than the one we had in the past.” Aliyev rejoined that the nations were “writing a great new history.”

The peace deal cemented by U.S. President Donald Trump includes a trade deal that will create a transit corridor between the two countries, to be named the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.”

USCIRF releases report on religious freedom in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released a report on religious freedom in Houthi-controlled areas of northern Yemen, stating that attacks on religious groups including Baha’is, Christians, Jews, and Ahmadiyya Muslims have escalated since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel. 

The Houthis have escalated their systematic and egregious violations of religious freedom affecting a range of groups,” the USCIRF stated in an Aug. 6 press release. “By advancing its religious ideology across sectors ... the Houthis are severely restricting religious freedom in a country with a millennia-long history of religious diversity.” The statement noted that the “few remaining members of minority faith communities” have gone into hiding to avoid Houthi threats and intimidation. 

Nearly 100 Russian Catholics gather in solidarity with Rome pilgrims for Jubilee of Youth

A group of 90 young Russian Catholics unable to travel to Rome for the July 28 to Aug. 3 Jubilee of Youth gathered together in Moscow for their own event in solidarity with pilgrims in the Eternal City, according to a report from Fides news agency. 

“We, too, were able to feel like pilgrims of hope and part of the universal Church. When we return home, we will take this spark of hope back to our parishes and to the entire country,” said Roman Andreev, the Moscow Archdiocese head of youth ministry. 

Young people gathered from cities across the archdiocese, as well as the suffragan dioceses of St. Clement and St. Joseph, and were accompanied by Moscow Auxiliary Bishop Nikolaj Dubinin. The young Russian pilgrims processed through the city, visiting its various Catholic churches, and met in the evening at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. 

Austrian bishop criticizes sculpture of Trump crucified: ‘Simply abnormal’ 

Bishop Hermann Glettler of Innsbruck, Austria, in an interview with Swiss outlet kath.ch on Wednesday decried a sculpture depicting U.S. President Donald Trump crucified, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner. 

The bishop condemned the work for portraying Trump, whom he described as “an egomaniac dealmaker from Washington,” on the cross, which is a “central Christian symbol.”

The life-size sculpture shows Trump in orange prison clothing strapped to a white cross, and its estimated price is around 20,000 euros (about $23,300).

“I find the work of the British [artist] Mason Storm, which was supposedly already shown in Vienna, simply abnormal,” Glettler said. “There is simply nothing to be seen in this that would somehow make sense.”

Third Pan African Congress on theology, society, and pastoral life kicks off in Ivory Coast

Participants in the third Pan African Catholic Congress on Theology, Society, and Pastoral Life have called for “spiritual and structural reawakening” in Africa, along with their commitment to confront issues affecting the continent during the five-day event, reported ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa. 

Organized by the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) on the theme “Journeying Together in Hope as God’s Family,” the third Pan-African Catholic Congress has been described as a call for the people of God in Africa to rediscover their shared vocation as Christians and members of the universal body of Christ.

Pope Leo calls on Malawi to make its first Eucharistic congress a time of ‘profound grace’

Pope Leo XIV has called upon the people of God in Malawi to make their first-ever national Eucharistic congress a time of “profound grace” and an opportunity to rekindle missionary zeal in their country, ACI Africa reported. 

In a message read by the apostolic nuncio to Malawi and Zambia, Archbishop Gian Luca Perici, Leo expressed his solidarity to the faithful gathered for the official opening of the Congress and conveyed his prayer that the event would be “a moment to deepen the love for the most holy Eucharist, strengthen the bonds of communion among the people of God, and inspire a renewed missionary zeal in every diocese, parish, and family.”

A view of the ruined Urukami Cathedral after the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing of Nagasaki. / Credit: Yamahata Yōsuke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Newsroom, Aug 8, 2025 / 16:53 pm (CNA).

As night fell over Nagasaki, Japan, on Friday, the reconstructed Urakami Cathedral — once destroyed by the world’s second atomic bomb — became the focus of a 24-hour prayer vigil that bridged continents, generations, and faiths in a unified call for nuclear disarmament.

Survivors rebuilt the cathedral on its original site, completing reconstruction in 1959; local histories record that thousands of parishioners perished on Aug. 9, 1945.

Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura of Nagasaki welcomed an international delegation including four U.S. Catholic leaders: Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago; Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C.; Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle; and Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their visit formed part of an Aug. 5–10 “Pilgrimage of Peace” aligned with the Church’s Jubilee of Hope.

Sacred ground, sacred witness

Friday’s commemorations included the Interfaith Memorial Service for Atomic Bomb Victims at Hypocenter Park, near the 11:02 a.m. detonation point of the plutonium device known as “Fat Man.”

Bells from Urakami Cathedral tolled during the memorials, a sonic reminder of the passage from devastation to a global symbol of peace.

Cupich, speaking in Nagasaki on Aug. 7, called the 1945 atomic bombings “deeply flawed” because they abandoned the just-war principle of noncombatant immunity.

The cardinal emphasized the importance of finding “people who are so committed to moral limits to warfare that acts of intentionally killing innocents is unthinkable.”

Earlier in the week, McElroy underscored the Church’s stance, reiterating Pope Francis’ categorical rejection of atomic weapons and warning that deterrence “is not a step on the road to nuclear disarmament but a morass.”

Global prayer network

The pilgrimage program in Nagasaki included perpetual adoration at Urakami Cathedral, a peace Mass on Aug. 9, and a torch procession from the cathedral to Hypocenter Park — symbolically linking the city’s spiritual rebuilding to its ground zero.

Universities from Japan and the United States — including Georgetown, Notre Dame, Loyola Chicago, Sophia (Tokyo), and Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University — joined an “Encounters and Hope” symposium examining Catholic ethics and nuclear policy. These elements were coordinated through the Partnership for a World Without Nuclear Weapons, a collaboration among the dioceses of Santa Fe, Seattle, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.