The Catholic Church in France will welcome a record number of adults into the faith in 2025, with particularly strong growth in the numbers of young adults and teenagers, according to newly released statistics from the country’s Conference of Bishops (CEF). / Credit: French Bishops’ Conference

Paris, France, Apr 16, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A new survey in France illuminates the surprising pathways bringing young people to the Catholic faith in unprecedented numbers at the coming Easter vigil.

The Catholic Church in France will welcome a record number of adults into the faith this weekend, with particularly strong growth in the numbers of young adults and teenagers, according to newly released statistics from the country’s Conference of Bishops (CEF).

A survey of 900 French catechumens conducted by Catholic media outlets Famille Chrétienne and Aleteia has revealed that social media plays a crucial role in attracting young adults to Catholicism, with 78% saying social media played a role in the discovery or deepening of their faith, while 84% said they follow Christian content creators or “influencers.”

Examples given were Dominican Father Paul-Adrien d’Hardemare, who has 481,000 subscribers on YouTube, and Le Catho de Service, which features a lay apologist named Victor who says his goal is to “motivate a generation of saints to re-evangelize France.” He has more than 200,000 followers on TikTok.

However, 54% said it was a priest, a religious, or a catechist who “helped them the most in their faith journey,” while 32% said it was friends.

A striking finding was that 65% said they did not grow up in a religious family, with 50% claiming they had discovered the faith on their own. Catechumens said they came to the faith initially through personal research (40%), through family (23%), or through friends (14%). About 40% said they had a “founding spiritual experience that pushed them to take their journey further,” the report said.

The French bishops reported that 10,384 adults will be baptized this year on Easter Saturday evening, a 45% increase from the previous year. They will stand alongside more than 7,400 adolescents aged 11 to 17, also considerably higher than the year before.

This continues a trend of increased interest in the Catholic faith among young French people that was also seen over Easter 2024.

“These results, which further exceed the record figures collected last year, are the highest ever recorded since the CEF began this survey more than 20 years ago,” said a statement from the French bishops.

It added that 13 dioceses will more than double the number of baptized adults. As well as the surge in catechumens, the CEF said there had been an increase in the number of adults who were baptized as children and are now choosing to be confirmed in the faith.

The data revealed that the trend in adult baptisms is particularly strong in women and those under 40. The conference said 42% of catechumens this year are in the 18-24 age group and nearly two-thirds of catechumens are female. 

“We can already see it as encouragement from the Lord, reminding us that he is the master of the mission; he is the one who draws us to himself, touches hearts, and reveals himself,” said Archbishop Olivier de Germay of Lyon, who is also member of the Commission for Initiation and Christian Life, in a statement.

“Let us give thanks to God,” he said, stressing the importance of discipleship for the new converts.  

Over the English Channel in the United Kingdom, there is also evidence of a surge of interest in Christianity in young adults and suggestions that online content might be influencing them, too. 

A recent report from the Bible Society, a charity based in England that promotes reading Scripture, found that churchgoing had increased significantly in the youngest adult age group over the past six years, with 16% of 18- to-24-year-olds saying they are monthly churchgoers compared with 19% of those over 65. That makes young adults the second most likely age group to attend church in the U.K., and the trend is particularly strong in young men. 

This year across England there were increased numbers of catechumens and candidates at the Rite of Election at the start of Lent. Anecdotally, many of these new entrants are young men, their interest sparked by social media such as content from U.S.-based Bishop Robert Barron and Father Mike Schmitz. 

Young adults in the U.K. are now twice as likely to attend Catholic churches than the Church of England, as only 20% of churchgoers identify as Anglican compared with 41% identifying as Catholic and 18% as Pentecostal, the Bible Society said.

Beds sit amid the debris in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on the Al-Ahli hospital, also known as the Baptist or Ahli Arab hospital, in Gaza City on April 13, 2025. / Credit: OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 15, 2025 / 17:37 pm (CNA).

Church leaders in Israel are expressing outrage after Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a wave of airstrikes on Palm Sunday, with two of its missiles targeting Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. 

The Anglican Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which runs the hospital, condemned the attacks “in the strongest terms” in a statement on Sunday, reporting that a child who had been suffering from a head injury had “tragically died as a result of the rushed evacuation process,” which reportedly took place in under 20 minutes. 

“The Diocese of Jerusalem is appalled at the bombing of the hospital now for the fifth time since the beginning of the war in 2023 — and this time on the morning of Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week,” the statement reads. “We call upon all governments and people of goodwill to intervene to stop all kinds of attacks on medical and humanitarian institutions. We pray and call for the end of this horrific war and the suffering of so many.” 

While no other deaths were reported as a result of the bombing, the Anglican diocese reported that the “twin strikes” had destroyed the hospital’s two-story genetic laboratory and damaged its pharmacy and emergency department buildings. The diocese also noted collateral damage in the surrounding area, including a nearby church. 

Under international law, hospitals have special protection. “This hospital, already strained by months of siege, stood as one of the last beacons of medical hope in Gaza, where dozens of health care institutions have been systematically destroyed,” the Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, Theopholis III, wrote in a statement on April 13. “The stripping away of such sanctuaries of life and dignity is a tragedy that transcends all boundaries of politics and enters the realm of the sacred.”

Al Ahli is the only Christian hospital in Gaza and one of the last remaining major hospitals still functioning in the northern part of the region, according to the Associated Press. 

The IDF wrote in a social media post after the strike that it had been targeting a “Hamas command and control center inside Al Ahli Hospital,” which it said Hamas had been using “to plan and execute terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.”

“Despite the IDF repeatedly stating that military activity within medical facilities in Gaza must stop, Hamas continues to blatantly violate international law and abuse the civilian population,” the post continued. “Prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians or to the hospital compound, including issuing advanced warnings in the area of the terror infrastructure, the use of precise munitions, and aerial surveillance.”

The new White House Faith Office is in high gear for Holy Week. / Credit: DJTechYT, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 15, 2025 / 16:52 pm (CNA).

The White House has announced plans for the Christian Holy Week leading up to Easter, which will include a Wednesday dinner and a Thursday religious service with Christians from a variety of communities.

President Donald Trump on Palm Sunday kicked off Holy Week with comments acknowledging Jesus Christ’s “excruciating pain, torture, and execution on the cross” and the gift of redemption and the forgiveness of sins merited through his suffering and death. He added that “through his resurrection, we have hope of eternal life.”

Trump urged prayers for “an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our beloved nation” and for the intention that the United States will “achieve a future that reflects the truth, beauty, and goodness of Christ’s eternal kingdom in heaven.”

Jennifer Korn, director of the White House Faith Office, told CNA that Catholics and Christians from a variety of Protestant communities are expected to be in attendance for the Holy Week events.

To celebrate Holy Week, the White House on Wednesday will hold a dinner and prayer service, which will be livestreamed online. On Thursday, the White House will host a prayer and worship service, which will include Christian hymns performed by musicians associated with Liberty University, a private Christian school.

Korn said Trump is hosting these events to ensure that Holy Week is “honored with the observance that it deserves.” She said the various events are “engaging with America in the way that America celebrates Easter.”

Trump’s motivation for the celebrations

The 2025 Holy Week celebrations are also more robust than the events Trump held during his first administration. Korn noted that in his second administration, Trump has “a resolve that is really different [from] last time.”

Trump has publicly spoken about his belief that God saved him from being assassinated at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.

“He’s been very transparent about that day — both publicly and privately — saying that it changed his life and he truly does believe that God spared his life to be president again and to really bring America back,” Korn said.

“We see that appreciation and humility that comes from a very near death experience,” she said, adding that, in private conversations, Trump speaks about that day in the same way he speaks about it in public: “He truly believes that.”

Korn also noted that Trump decorated the Oval Office with “two gold angels on two sides of the office.” During a meeting, she said the president told her to “look up at the ceiling” and said the angels are there “to guard over and look over the Oval Office” and his work and the work of his administration.

Trump in February established the White House Faith Office, which was created to help root out anti-Christian bias, defend religious liberty, and ensure that religious communities are part of the public policy discussions. The new office replaced the former White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Korn said the creation of the Faith Office was historic and that it is different from the initiatives of previous presidents, adding it has “never been done before in the West Wing.” In meetings with the president, she said he frequently asks her: “How are my pastors doing, how are my priests, how are my rabbis doing?”

The separation of church and state, Korn said, “doesn’t mean that people of faith don’t have a voice in the government.” She asserted that this office is “bringing that voice back” with efforts to promote religious liberty domestically and abroad, among other initiatives.

In addition to the Holy Week celebrations, Korn noted that the White House is also hosting a Passover event on Thursday afternoon. The Jewish celebration of Passover, which began on April 12 and ends on April 20, overlaps with the Christian Holy Week this year.

Illinois state capitol in Springfield. / Credit: Paul Brady Photography/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 15, 2025 / 15:59 pm (CNA).

Illinois Catholic bishops are calling on people of faith to actively oppose proposed legislation “that seeks to legalize assisted suicide in Illinois.”

The Catholic Conference of Illinois (CCI) in a statement urged residents to contact their state senators to express opposition to the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act (Senate Bill 9). The bill passed the Senate Executive Committee on April 9 and a vote on it could be held on the Senate floor between now and May 31.

The act states that it would allow “a qualified patient with a terminal disease to request that a physician prescribe aid-in-dying medication” to die “in a peaceful manner.”

The CCI said “legalizing assisted suicide goes against the Church’s teachings on the sanctity and dignity of human life. It undermines the value of each human person, particularly those who are vulnerable.”

This year, bills proposing the legalization of medical assisted suicide have been introduced in several other states and are continuing to move forward in the legislation process. 

Maryland introduced a bill titled the End-of-Life Option Act that would authorize “an individual to request aid in dying.” The 2025 bill follows a failed attempt to pass a 2024 version of it. The Maryland bishops urged action by asking legislatures “for an unfavorable report” of the bill. 

In Delaware, House Bill 140 was passed by the House in March to legalize medical assisted suicide. The bill states it would allow terminally ill patients to end their life “in a humane and dignified manner.” 

Oregon has active proposed legislation but aimed to extend its Death with Dignity Act to also allow physician assistants and nurse practitioners, not only licensed physicians, to prescribe drugs to facilitate assisted suicide. The bill follows an increase in lethal drug prescriptions in the state.

Illinois bishops said these “laws permitting assisted suicide pose significant risks to the poor, marginalized, and disabled, who may face pressure to end their lives rather than receive the care and compassion they need and deserve.”

“There are documented cases from states where assisted suicide has been legalized, where individuals with rare or life-threatening conditions were denied necessary medical treatment and were instead offered life-ending prescriptions,” the statement said. 

“Illinois does not need to legalize assisted suicide,” the bishops said, adding: “What we truly need is increased access to quality health care, enhanced palliative care options, and loving and compassionate support services for those at the end of their lives.”

The CCI created a pre-written message for Illinois residents to send to their senators.

“In Illinois, suicide is already a growing crisis,” the message states. “A person dies by suicide every five hours and 41 minutes, and the suicide rate rose by 7% from 2021 to 2022. With so many resources committed to preventing suicide, S.B. 9 would send a dangerous and conflicting message.”

“Protect the vulnerable. Promote real care. Please vote NO on S.B. 9,” the message concludes.

Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo and her husband, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. / Credit: Inti Ocon/AFP via Getty Images

ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 15, 2025 / 15:28 pm (CNA).

The dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his “co-president” and wife, Rosario Murillo, in Nicaragua has banned, for the third consecutive year, street processions in the country, where the Catholic Church has suffered fierce persecution from the regime for several years.

“Before, we used to go out into the streets and go around the communities, but now we don’t. We have to do it inside the church, and that somewhat diminishes popular religiosity, because people liked the procession. Now, we just pray and read the Stations [of the Cross],” a parishioner named Marcos, who serves at a church in Managua, told the newspaper Confidencial.

Aurelio (first name), 35, pointed out in turn: “We already know who the plainclothes police are. There was a fair recently and we saw them there. They take photos, see who’s there and what’s being done. The priest must provide information.”

According to Confidencial, the dictatorship is supposedly deploying 14,000 police officers to prevent processions during Holy Week in Nicaragua.

At the end of March, Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan researcher and lawyer in exile, explained that there is a “Summer 2025 Plan” for the police, which “includes police harassment and intimidation of priests” to remind them of two orders they must follow to avoid jail: “no authorization to hold processions” and “not to mention anything against the ‘government’ in their homilies and religious activities.”

Molina is the author of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church,” which in its latest edition in December 2024 reported nearly 1,000 attacks by the dictatorship against the Catholic Church in the country from 2018 to 2024.

The newspaper Mosaico CSI reported in January that the police are monitoring priests, checking their cellphones, and demanding weekly reports on their activities in addition to restricting their freedom of movement. They even interrogated a schoolgirl on her way to church.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Molina said: “Some parishes have obtained permission, but only to hold the procession in front of them. That is, they come out, are on the street in front of the parish for a short while, and then go in procession toward the main altar. It’s not that they’re going to walk through all the streets, as was customary in previous years when religious freedom was respected in Nicaragua.”

“Judeas [theatrical representations of the passion and death of Christ] are also being banned. In fact, the Sandinista police recently went to intimidate minors so they wouldn’t participate in these activities, which are more common in the country’s interior. They threatened them, telling them not to go out, that it was prohibited,” Molina reported.

“The police no longer have any qualms; they enter churches armed to monitor people, to take photos and videos, and the Church continues to suffer from this siege and persecution by the dictatorship,” she said.

Dictatorship powerless against the risen Christ

On Palm Sunday, Silvio Báez, a Nicaraguan bishop in exile, wrote on X that “the dictatorship of #Nicaragua has banned street processions. What they will not be able to prevent is the Crucified One from revealing his victory in every struggle for truth and justice, in every effort to defend people’s dignity, and in every act of solidarity for the victims.”

On April 13, Father Nils Hernández, an exiled Nicaraguan priest who works at Queen of Peace Parish in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, stated that “Jesus is going to overthrow those dictators who have stolen Nicaragua as if it were their own country estate. God sees the suffering of his people, and God does not abandon Nicaragua, even though the co-dictators [Ortega and Murillo] think they will continue to triumph.”

“Despite the religious persecution launched by the Ortega regime against the Church in #Nicaragua, Catholics are attending the country’s parishes en masse at the beginning of #SemanaSanta 2025 [Holy Week],” said Nicaraguan journalist Israel Espinoza, who is exiled in Spain.

“The faith of Nicaraguan Christians is worthy of admiration and solidarity,” he added.

Father Edwing Román, another exiled priest, wrote on X that “in Nicaragua, nothing is normal. I know of some parishes where police remain inside the church, recording homilies, and they ask to take a picture with the priest to commit them to projecting an image, according to la Chayo [Murillo’s nickname], who talks of ‘love and peace.’”

New report details regime’s human rights violations

On April 3, the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua published a report titled “Institutions and Individuals Responsible for the Main Patterns of Human Rights Violations and Abuses and Crimes Committed in Nicaragua Since April 2018,” a 234-page document that provides information on 54 officials it holds responsible.

Félix Maradiaga, a former presidential candidate, political prisoner, and director of the Fundación Libertad, (Freedom Foundation) noted on April 10 in an interview with “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News, that the report details the “bloody role” of these officials, “not only in the 2018 protests but in the subsequent crackdown,” and he called on the international community to support Nicaragua so that “it can at some point have a special court to prosecute these crimes.”

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

null / Credit: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Apr 15, 2025 / 14:57 pm (CNA).

A federal judge has denied an attempt by religious groups to halt the government’s policy of broadly allowing immigration officials to arrest suspected illegal immigrants at houses of worship. 

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich said in an April 11 memorandum opinion that the religious plaintiffs — which included the Mennonite Church, the Episcopal Church, the Friends General Conference, and several Jewish groups including the New York-based Rabbinical Assembly — had “not established a substantial likelihood” of success in their suit against the federal government. 

The suit originally arose in February after the Department of Homeland Security under President Donald Trump rescinded Biden-era guidelines that required Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to seek their superior’s approval before arresting people at or near “sensitive locations” such as churches, hospitals, or schools.

The groups argued that the revised policy was “substantially burdening the religious exercise” of their respective congregations and members, including through decreases in attendance. 

In her ruling, Freidrich said the decline in attendance was “not fairly traceable” to the Trump administration’s rescission of the Biden-era guidelines.

Re-implementing the Biden rules, she said, “would not mitigate the risks cited by congregants of leaving their homes generally, or of traveling to or from religious services.” The Biden-era rules “create[d] no legally enforceable rights” and conferred “only limited protections” against arrests, she pointed out. 

Evidence “suggests that congregants are staying home to avoid encountering ICE in their own neighborhoods, not because churches or synagogues are locations of elevated risk,” the judge wrote. 

It is not clear if the plaintiffs plan to file an appeal to the ruling. Attorneys representing the religious groups did not immediately respond to CNA’s request for comment. 

The Trump administration’s immigration rules have generated both legal action and public criticism, including from U.S. Catholic leaders. 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a January statement that “non-emergency immigration enforcement” in places such as churches and schools “would be contrary to the common good.”

“With the mere rescission of the protected areas guidance, we are already witnessing reticence among immigrants to engage in daily life, including sending children to school and attending religious services,” the bishops argued at the time. 

In February, Pope Francis wrote to the U.S. bishops arguing that immigration laws and policies should be subordinated to the dignified treatment of people, especially the most vulnerable.

The letter, which was widely viewed as a rebuke to the Trump administration, acknowledged that the just treatment of immigrants does not impede the development of policies to regulate orderly and legal migration.

But “what is built on the basis of force and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being begins badly and will end badly,” the pope argued.

Father Antonio Aurelio is vicar general of the Trinitarian order. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Rome Newsroom, Apr 15, 2025 / 14:26 pm (CNA).

The Trinitarian order was founded at the end of the 12th century to free persecuted Christians. Today, it continues to quietly and humbly assist those persecuted for their faith.

Among the bustling streets of Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood, a few steps from the Tiber River, stands one of Rome’s oldest basilicas, that of St. Chrysogonus, served by the Trinitarian order — officially known as the Order of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Captives — since 1850. The basilica was built in memory of a Roman soldier who died a martyr after converting to Christianity.

Father Antonio Aurelio, vicar general of the Trinitarian order, explained with conviction in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that “we were born to go to the dungeons.” 

In a large hall, under the gaze of all the superior generals of the order whose portraits grace the room, Aurelio — wearing his unmistakable white habit with its blue and red cross — explained why the Trinitarian order marked a turning point in the Catholic Church.

A mission: To liberate Christians

“The founding of the order in 1198 was a unique event in the history of the Church, since until then only monastic life existed,” Aurelio said.

According to Aurelio, St. John of Matha, its founder, created the first order that came out of the convent to help those in need, especially Christians who had been taken prisoner during the years of the Crusades (1096–1291), for whom they paid ransoms and even changed places with.

The Trinitarian order was established with the mission of rescuing and redeeming both Christian captives and Muslims, establishing a new model of religious life centered on action and service outside the monastery. The vicar general also noted that the Trinitarians went to war zones “in the name of peace, not with a weapon but with a cross.”

“They call us redeemers because we follow the same path that the Redeemer follows. He leaves his place, so to speak, of glory and comes down to the world. He goes to seek out the needs, to seek out the weaknesses of man, to free him, to bring him out of that darkness. And the Trinitarians follow the same path. They leave their homes to seek out those in need, to give them the clarity of the God of the day, bringing them out of the darkness of the dungeons,” he said.

In fact, there are currently Trinitarians in the process of beatification, such as Antonio da Conceiçao, a Portuguese Calced Trinitarian, and José de la Madre de Dios and Ignacio Tavares, who died in prison after exchanging themselves for Christian prisoners.

“There were religious who, when money wasn’t coming in and they saw that the prisoners were in dire straits, would take their places, literally offering their lives for the captives,” Aurelio added.

21st-century captives

With a desire to return to the origins of its founding, the Trinitarian International Solidarity (TIS) was founded in 1999. Its mission is to assist persecuted Christians and work for religious freedom.

According to the 2023 World Religious Freedom Report by Aid to the Church in Need, Christians continue to be the most persecuted religious group. A total of 28 countries, home to more than half of the world’s population (51.5%), fall into the “red” category of persecution. Of these, 13 are in Africa, where the situation has seriously deteriorated.

Today, Trinitarians continue their order’s legacy, dedicating their lives to the captives of the 21st century, those who suffer persecution for their faith. The order currently has 54 communities in Europe, 22 in the United States and Canada, 21 in Latin America, 10 in Madagascar, two in India, and two in continental Africa.

In addition to Trinitarian priests, the order also includes Trinitarian nuns and sisters, distributed among houses in Rome and various locations in Spain, as well as lay Trinitarians.

Following St. John of Matha’s example

“Eight Centuries Later” is a Spanish-language documentary that gives voice to and puts a face on forgotten Christians suffering in places like Syria, Nigeria, and northern India but who don’t lose hope thanks to the “silent” help offered by TIS.

“St. John of Matha is one of the most discreet saints in existence; he never spoke of himself,” Aurelio said. Drawing on the founder’s humility, discretion, and silence, the order wanted to make a documentary in which the spotlight is given to those who are suffering extreme situations, today’s captives.

“We wanted them to be the ones to speak. Let them be the ones to express themselves, to tell us,” Aurelio explained.

The documentary reflects the heartbreaking situation of girls in Nigeria, kidnapped and raped by Boko Haram terrorists. It also highlights the abandonment of Christians in Syria, once conceived as the “Switzerland” of the East and now devastated by war, as well as the lack of religious freedom in India. “The Trinitarian family is present there, discreetly, as we say, in silence, but it is present there,” Aurelio emphasized.

For the superior of the Trinitarians, what “is not told does not exist,” although he added that Christians ought to be interested in learning about the reality of their persecuted brothers and sisters without looking the other way.

“We’re so used to our own routines, our own ways, that anything different doesn’t register. In other words, it slides off like water on a raincoat, it doesn’t soak in. And that’s what’s happening in the West, what’s happening in Europe, and what’s happening in the United States,” he lamented.

In this context, he clarified that the Trinitarian order is not a nondenominational, nongovernmental organization (NGO), “but rather we are religious. Our concept is a religious attitude, and since we can’t stop these wars because it’s beyond our power, at least what we can do is not leave the people to fend for themselves, not abandon them.”

Aurelio lamented the relativism in society in developed countries and the lack of “purity of faith.”

“We cannot abandon them. It pains us greatly that the West has such a hard time understanding that there are people who hold fast to the same religion and are willing to give their lives to remain faithful to that religion,” he told ACI Prensa.

When asked about the main motivation that leads to the persecution of Christians or whether there is a common factor among the persecutors, the Spanish priest was clear: “The Christian message is what scares them. Christianity is the only religion that has fostered a democratic context, freedom among people. Where Christians are persecuted, there are essentially dictatorships, and the message of freedom is a message they don’t accept.”

“Christianity,” Aurelio continued, “is the only religion on a philosophical and theological level that looks to the person as he or she is, and therefore seeks his or her well-being.” In Christianity, “one of life’s foundations is freedom.” 

He emphasized that Christianity gives every person a sense of freedom, something that “terrifies dictatorships … Anything that is contrary to the pursuit of the common good of the person, which is Christianity, must be persecuted,” he pointed out.

He also cited the subservience and obedience practiced in some religions, especially Islam. “It is not accepted; the concept of personhood doesn’t exist in these religions. There is the concept of ‘Sunnah,’ a series of regulations that govern social interaction, but the person has no identity,” he maintained.

“It seems like we’re talking a lot about the common good these days,” he said. “That’s a modern idea of ​​the common good, but the first person to use that word was St. Paul, in his letters. This whole desire to look to the person as the center of that freedom, of that well-being, frightens any dictatorship that exists in the world, and, therefore, those who embrace this way of life must be persecuted.”

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

Archbishop Charles Scicluna (left) and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu (right). / Credit: Claudio Reyes/AFP/Getty

Lima Newsroom, Apr 15, 2025 / 13:31 pm (CNA).

The Vatican announced Tuesday that the suppression of the Sodality of Christian Life and all the institutions founded by Luis Fernando Figari has been formalized as a result of an investigation ordered by Pope Francis.

The Sodality of Christian Life (SCV by its Latin acronym) was officially dissolved Monday after its superior general, José David Correa, signed the decree of suppression at the headquarters of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in the Vatican.

The sodality reported in a statement that the act took place “in the presence of Sister Simona Brambilla, prefect of the dicastery.”

It also reported that “Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu Farnós has been appointed as apostolic commissioner to oversee matters related to the suppression of the sodality.” Bertomeu, along with Archbishop Charles Scicluna, was part of the special mission that Pope Francis sent to Peru in July 2023 to investigate allegations of abuse within the apostolate.

In its text, the SCV affirmed that its members accept “with sorrow and obedience” the decision “specifically approved by Pope Francis, which brings our society to an end.”

With the signing of this decree, all the institutions founded by Figari are dissolved, including the Marian Fraternity of Reconciliation, the Servants of God’s Plan, and the Christian Life Movement.

The Marian Fraternity of Reconciliation announced its dissolution on April 2, the Servants of God’s Plan did the same on April 4, and the Christian Life Movement announced its dissolution on April 14.

The Marian Fraternity of Reconciliation explained that the decree’s suppression “is motivated by the lack of a charism of divine origin in the founder [Figari] as well as by the abuses and improper and abusive behavior of Figari and many of his collaborators.” The fraternity “recognizes that it was not immune to psychological and conscience abuse within its leadership.” 

Figari was sanctioned by the Vatican in February 2017 following the sexual abuse and abuse of power he engaged in over several years. In August 2024, Pope Francis expelled him from the SCV, which the sodality had requested in 2019.

In its statement April 15, the sodality thanked God for the vocation to which its members were called “without any merit of our own to serve in the Church.”

“We treasure the fact that, through his loving action, many people from various countries have shared with us a genuine experience of faith, fraternity, and apostolic fervor, which has borne much fruit,” the text stated.

The SCV also reiterated its request for forgiveness from the victims for the “mistreatment and abuse committed within our community ... We also ask forgiveness from the entire Church and society for the pain caused.”

It also thanked those who formed its spiritual family and the bishops who welcomed them into their dioceses.

The SCV was founded by Figari in Lima, Peru, in 1971 and was also present in Italy, the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador.

Its dissolution was announced to its members in January during the plenary assembly held by the SCV in Aparecida, Brazil.

Regarding the assets of the suppressed institutions, the decrees shared by the fraternas and the servants indicate that the consolidated amount should be used to “compensate the victims and, subsidiarily, will be donated proportionally to guarantee the financial support of the members of the entities founded by Luis Fernando Figari.” 

On Jan. 21, the sodality reported that between May 2016 and December 2024, it provided reparations to 83 people who were victims of sexual and psychological abuse as well as the abuse of power through out-of-court settlements.

The SCV stated that of the total cases for which reparations were made, 15 involved sexual abuse of minors between the ages of 11 and 17, 18 involved abuse of adults, and 50 involved other types of abuse.

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

Pope Francis kisses the foot of one of the 12 women whose feet he washed at the Rebibbia Women’s Prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Apr 15, 2025 / 10:38 am (CNA).

For Holy Week, Pope Francis has delegated three cardinals to celebrate the Vatican’s Holy Thursday and Good Friday liturgies as the state of the pontiff’s health continues to steadily improve, the director of the Holy See Press Office said Tuesday.

The 88-year-old pope, who is recovering from a prolonged case of double pneumonia, has delegated Italian Cardinal Domenico Calcagno to celebrate the chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on the morning of Holy Thursday.

Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, will lead the Passion service in the Vatican basilica on the afternoon of Good Friday, and the same evening, the vicar general of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, will preside over the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum with meditations written by Francis.

It has not yet been decided who will celebrate the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday evening and the Easter Sunday Mass, Holy See spokesperson Matteo Bruni said Tuesday.

How much Pope Francis will participate in Holy Week and Easter liturgies at the Vatican is also unclear after the 88-year-old pontiff made a surprise appearance in St. Peter’s Square during Palm Sunday Mass on April 13.

For the first time since his 39-day hospitalization earlier this year, the pope was not wearing nasal tubes for breathing help during his brief appearance at the end of the public Mass.

According to Bruni, Francis is now able to go for longer periods without supplemental oxygen, except as needed at night. The pontiff’s mobility and voice are also improving, and he is holding short work meetings to discuss important Church business with the heads of Vatican dicasteries.

Pope Francis has no public schedule while convalescing from multiple respiratory infections that landed him in the hospital in February, but he has made several unexpected appearances in the last week, including a visit to pray before his favorite Marian icon, “Salus Populi Romani,” at the Basilica of St. Mary Major on April 12.

The pope also surprised tourists and pilgrims in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 10 when he was wheeled into the Vatican basilica wearing a white undershirt and black pants while draped in a blanket instead of being dressed in his usual white cassock and zucchetto.

Now just over three weeks since his release from hospital, the appearances mark the pope’s gradual resumption of public life during a convalescence expected to last several more weeks.

The new statue by Timothy P. Schmalz titled “Be Welcoming” is displayed in St. Peter’s Square, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. / Credit: Victoria Isabel Cardiel/EWTN News

Vatican City, Apr 15, 2025 / 10:07 am (CNA).

A new Vatican-commissioned sculpture by Canadian artist Timothy P. Schmalz titled “Be Welcoming” was installed in St. Peter’s Square on Tuesday in the hopes of inspiring people to open their hearts to the poor.

Schmalz’s bronze statue — located near the Showers for the Poor and the Mother of Mercy Clinic in the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square — depicts a man seated on a bench “who appears to be a homeless person” carrying only two possessions: a full backpack on his shoulder and a stick in one hand.

The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Service of Charity said on Tuesday: “This stranger turns into an angel when you look at the other side of the sculpture: the roughness of his clothes becomes smooth, the bag he carries turns into wings and the hood turns into hair.”

Known for creating artworks that interact with its viewers, Schmalz’s Be Welcoming statue “invites you to sit next to him,” to contemplate the word of God and inspire people to carry out works of charity. 

Be Welcoming — the Canadian sculptor’s latest installation in St. Peter’s Square — is another “visual interpretation of a verse from the Letter to the Hebrews: ‘Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some have unknowingly entertained angels’ (Heb 13:2),” the Vatican statement said.

The same Scripture verse also inspired Schmalz’s Angels Unawares sculpture — also located within St. Peter’s Square — which depicts 140 migrants of different ethnicities and nationalities standing on a boat. 

On Sept. 29, 2019, Pope Francis blessed that statue on the occasion of the Church’s 105th World Day of Migrants and Refugees.

“We are all invited to open our hearts because only then will we have the opportunity to see others as they really are, people with their humanity,” the Vatican statement read. “Touching a poor person, assisting a poor person, is a sacrament in the Church.”

“We give ‘a concrete face to the Gospel of love,’” the statement continued, quoting Pope Francis. “‘By offering them shelter, a meal, a smile, holding out our hands without fear of dirtying them’ we restore ‘dignity,’ and this touches ‘the heart of our often indifferent world.’”

Be Welcoming is the third Schmalz installation located in the vicinity of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Canadian artist’s “Homless Jesus” statue, inaugurated in March 2016 during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, is located in the square in front of the Vatican’s apostolic charity offices.