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Priests seek guidance for pastoral response to Catholics seeking euthanasia

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada — A national initiative is urgently needed to address the “real problem” of Catholics accessing medical assistance in dying (MAID), said Father Thomas Lynch, president of Priests for Life Canada.

Lynch, who serves in the Diocese of Peterborough, Ontario, said the majority of priests with whom he has spoken “have experience with [Catholic] people being killed — I refuse to say, ‘dying by MAiD.’”

“This is a real problem,” Lynch told Canadian Catholic News (CCN) in an interview. “I can say this, categorically, because I’ve presented at a large number of priest study days, speaking on this specifically, and if you ask priests if they’ve had any firsthand experience [with the problem], the majority put up their hands.”

Lynch said the Church “needs to be far clearer” about promoting life. “It can’t just be diocese by diocese” or a letter from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), he said.

Because the federal MAID reporting system does not track the religious affiliation of those who die by euthanasia, there is no way to determine how many of the 16,499 Canadians who received MAID in 2024 were practicing or lapsed Catholics.

However, the acceptance of MAID among Catholics is sufficiently significant that Deacon Laurence Worthen, executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Association of Canada, agrees that much more needs to be done to educate the laity about the moral peril posed by MAID.

“Yes, it is a huge problem,” Worthen said in an interview. “We need information sheets passed out at the parishes, we need our priests preaching about it. We need a full-court press.”

Worthen, who lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, traveled throughout Canada for two weeks in November giving talks about the issue to 15 groups.

His association offers a three-part program called “Dying with Christ — Living with Hope.” Emphasizing human dignity, it presents a Christian view of dying rooted in the belief that life is a gift from God and must be cared for, not intentionally ended.

The CCCB’s strong opposition to legalized euthanasia was evident well before Parliament passed MAID legislation in 2016 and has continued over the past decade with formal statements, briefs, letters to government, and pastoral messages.

In an emailed response to questions from CCN, a spokesperson for the communications office of the CCCB said the organization continues to publicly voice its strong objection to MAID.

“In addition, the CCCB does offer the free resource ‘Horizons of Hope: A Toolkit for Catholic Parishes on Palliative Care,’” the spokesperson said. “This resource seeks to empower and educate the faithful by addressing questions surrounding palliative care, dying, death, suffering, accompaniment, and bereavement in a holistic fashion.”

As well, the CCCB formed the Joint Ad hoc Committee on Palliative Care with a variety of partners and experts to address the increasing complexities regarding end-of-life issues in Canada, the spokesperson said. Committee members included representatives from Pallium Canada, Dominican University College, Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, Catholic Health Alliance of Canada, and the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph.

In a statement issued in June on the 10th anniversary of Canada’s legalization of MAID, the CCCB said euthanasia and assisted dying “can never be morally acceptable, for they are gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to God, the Creator and Lord of Life.”

Despite such moral injunctions, a June 2023 Ipsos poll, commissioned by the pro-MAID group Dying with Dignity, found that support for MAID among Canadian Catholics for patients whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable was almost identical to the national rate — 83% compared with 84% overall.

Support among Catholics for MAID is more than just philosophical. In Vancouver, Father Joseph D’Souza, pastor of St. Mary Parish, told CCN he was greatly troubled two years ago when he learned that an elderly, ailing religious sister living in his parish was planning to access MAID to precipitate her death.

D’Souza said he refused the sister’s request for the sacrament of anointing of the sick and then, after checking with the chancery, also refused to celebrate a funeral Mass when the sister followed through on her MAID death.

Church doctrine clearly supports his actions, he said. “But as a gesture of goodwill, we can go to the cemetery and bless the grave, which I did,” he said.

D’Souza said he used the graveside blessing “as an opportunity to make [the mourners] aware that the Church is against MAID … because the Church values life and life is created by God and he alone has the right to take it away. So when I made that, in my homily, very clear, all the friends understood the fact.”

At Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Father Paul Moret devoted a homily last March to Catholic teaching about the sanctity of life in response to persistent rumors that two parishioners had died by MAID, he told CCN.

He said the families of these two parishioners — a longtime member of the Knights of Columbus and a member of the Catholic Women’s League — had allegedly kept secret the fact the two had accessed MAID so that they could have funeral Masses.

“I just wanted to make it very clear to people what the Church believes in this regard, so that when they are making end-of-life decisions, they don’t make that decision, to go for MAID,” Moret told CCN.

He said he believes the lingering negative influence of the Canadian bishops’ pronouncements about personal conscience is partly to blame for the support for MAID among some Catholics.

Moret referred directly to the 1968 “Winnipeg Statement” issued by the Canadian bishops in response to Humanae Vitae, the encyclical of Pope Paul VI that banned the use of artificial contraception.

He said the bishops’ statement created the faulty impression that a person acting in good conscience could choose not to adhere to official Church teaching.

Nevertheless, Moret said pastoral issues surrounding MAID are not always clear-cut. He said when MAID was first legalized, his pastoral response was clear: It’s wrong in all circumstances.

Now, however, his response is being influenced by news reports that some Canadians are being pressured to choose MAID and that some are turning to assisted death because of inadequate healthcare.

“People are being pushed into it,” Moret said. “People are being pushed over the cliff either by the medical profession itself, or by family members, or by whatever happens to be. So I don’t think it’s possible for us to make the assumption that the person has chosen freely.”

He likened such changed circumstances to the Church’s shift in the understanding of suicide. It used to be that the Church presumed all those who committed suicide did so with the full knowledge of the moral consequence of their action — that it was a grave sin in direct violation of the Fifth Commandment and the dignity of human life.

Today, however, the Catechism of the Catholic Church maintains: “Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide” (No. 2282).

Moret said he would appreciate some clarification on whether circumstances surrounding a person’s euthanasia death can likewise help shape his pastoral response.

This story was first published by Canadian Catholic News and has been reprinted, with adaptations, with permission.

In Florida, a Catholic former death row prisoner works to save those still condemned to death

Joaquín José Martínez takes the long view when it comes to abolishing the death penalty: “One step at a time.”

Convicted of murder in 1997 and sentenced to death, Martínez — a Catholic — was exonerated in 2001. Since then he has spent years advocating against the death penalty in Florida and elsewhere.

At a press conference on Nov. 12, Martínez urged Florida’s Gov.-elect Byron Donalds to halt executions in the state, something Catholics and other advocates have been calling on the government to do for years.

The advocate said the sociopolitical landscape around capital punishment has changed radically over the years, particularly in schools, where Martínez himself regularly speaks to students about abolishing the death penalty.

“We didn’t have anyone come out [when I was a child] to teach us and speak to us about how horrible the death penalty was,” he said. “To see this change now, I’m overwhelmed by it.”

Florida is among the most active states in putting prisoners to death. Data from the Death Penalty Information Center show 23 executions there over the last year alone.

Catholic bishops in the state have been active in speaking out against executions, urging the government to halt death sentences in part by regularly pointing to the humanity of the condemned.

In 2025, for instance, the bishops called for the commutation of one death sentence by arguing that the governor should “recognize with awe that God is the author of life, and to reserve to him the taking of human life except where it is otherwise impossible to maintain the common good.”

In the press conference, Martínez — who was joined by his fellow exonerees Herman Lindsey and Seth Penalver — acknowledged that it is “difficult” for people to “accept that the death penalty is not perfect.”

“It has faults,” he said. But “I’m one more reason why we should abolish the death penalty.”

A native of Spain, Martínez told EWTN News that he loves his adopted home of the United States. “And I would really love to see the United States put an end to the death penalty,” he said.

“I think we’re an example to the rest of the world. The rest of the world looks to the U.S. for what they do.”

At the press conference he compared executions in the U.S. to those carried out in ancient Rome’s Colosseum.

“I mean, how barbaric!” he said at the conference. He argued that the U.S. and Florida are “not barbaric,” but he argued of the country: “It just needs to evolve. It just needs to grow.”

He told EWTN News, meanwhile, that anti-death penalty advocacy is much more united and focused than it was years ago when he himself was on death row.

“When I was sentenced to death, we didn’t have so many organizations working together against the death penalty,” he said. The media, too, now offers much fairer coverage of that advocacy than it used to, he said.

He also pointed to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent historic exoneration of every prisoner on that state’s death row.

“It’s going to take a long time to change,” he said. “But we do see change. It’s good.”

‘He was very happy’: Chiclayo priest describes dinner with Pope Leo XIV

CHICLAYO, Peru — Pope Leo XIV ended his first day back in his former diocese on Friday, Nov. 13, at dinner with about 140 of its priests, one of whom said the pope “was very happy” to be with them.

“There were about 140 of us priests. He arrived very cheerful and told us that he was very glad to be with us, that he wanted to see us,” Father Jorge Millán told EWTN News. Millán was pastor of Chiclayo’s cathedral when Leo was bishop of the diocese.

The dinner took place at the Colegio Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo in Chiclayo.

‘A beautiful gesture’

Millán said the Holy Father made “a beautiful gesture” toward the priests at the end of the meal.

“Instead of us asking him for a photo, he said, ‘I want to take a photo with each one of you.’ And one by one we went up, and he greeted us with great patience and affection, with a welcoming look, recognizing us by our names. He hasn’t lost his memory. He was very content and happy,” the priest said.

Leo “wanted to stay, I think,” Millán added, “but we were happy with this gesture, because he was the one who asked us to have dinner with him.”

‘A task’

According to Millán, the pope encouraged the priests “to keep the parishes alive, to love one another very much, to stay together and to always work for evangelization and for the love of God.”

A cake served at the dinner showed the pope beside Chiclayo’s cathedral with the inscription “Leo XIV, Messenger of Peace.”

It was “a very familial dinner, very much among brothers,” Millán said. “And of course we had to remind ourselves that the one there with us is the pope, nothing more and nothing less.”

Leo led the Diocese of Chiclayo as bishop from 2015 to 2023. Earlier on Friday, he celebrated Mass for about 500,000 people in the Pampas de Pimentel, crowned the image of Our Lady of Peace at her shrine and addressed students and professors at Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Catholic University.

On Saturday, Nov. 14, he is scheduled to crown the image of the Immaculate Virgin at Chiclayo’s cathedral, celebrate Mass in Santa Cruz de Succhabamba in the Cajamarca region and close the jubilee year of St. Turibius of Mogrovejo in Zaña.

This story was first published by EWTN News Español and has been adapted by EWTN News English.

Pope Leo XIV calls on Catholic universities to ‘serve the truth faithfully’

CHICLAYO, Peru — Pope Leo XIV offered a mission statement for Catholic higher education as a bastion of truth-seeking and humanity in a world increasingly dominated by soulless technocratic utilitarianism.

Speaking Friday, Nov. 13, in his former diocese, the pope said a university is called to be “a forge of talents and a laboratory of meaning: a space where intelligence does not bow to utility but serves the truth faithfully” — above all, he added, “the Truth with a capital T, who is Christ, the Savior of the world.”

“The Catholic university works to foster the fruitful encounter between faith and reason, and between religion and science,” the pope continued. “This academic approach frees us from the temptation to produce only a skilled workforce for an exclusive and highly competitive market.”

Leo made his remarks during a visit to Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo Catholic University in Chiclayo, where as bishop he also served as the university’s grand chancellor. Friday was his first time back in the city since his election as pope in May 2025.

The institution is named for St. Turibius of Mogrovejo, a Spanish missionary who served as archbishop of Lima from 1581 until his death in 1606 and who promoted the use of the Indigenous languages Quechua and Aymara in evangelization.

Leo has a particular devotion to St. Turibius and was scheduled to take part in a celebration closing the jubilee year for the 300th anniversary of the saint’s canonization on Saturday, Nov. 14.

“Saint Turibius’ great cultural work in this part of the world continues to inspire us,” the pope said on Friday. “A university modeled on his example is called to use scientific innovation to bridge social divides and heal society’s wounds.”

He said such a university could be effective in dispelling what he called the mirage of transhumanism and posthumanism: “ideological currents according to which, sooner or later, technology will eliminate all disease and pain, as well as aging and even death itself.”

Against such ideas, Christian anthropology “reminds us that a limitation is not a manufacturing defect, but rather the very condition of human grandeur,” Leo said. While “the myth of self-sufficiency locks us in selfishness and leads us to discard the weak,” he added, “recognizing our fragility makes us attentive to the needs of all.”

Turning to the students, the pope urged them to see the opportunities of their time in the light of faith, which he called a bright beacon in “the confusion and darkness of loneliness, boredom and pain” and “a force that gives wisdom and strength, leading to what is essential.”

PHOTOS: Pope Leo XIV returns to his former diocese of Chiclayo, Peru

Pope Leo XIV returned to Chiclayo, Peru, on Nov. 13, visiting the South American diocese he led for nearly a decade and celebrating Mass there as pope for the first time.

The Holy Father led the Chiclayo Diocese from 2015 to 2023 before then-Pope Francis appointed him as the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. The pope has referred to Peru as his “homeland”; prior to leading the Diocese of Chiclayo he served as a missionary there for years.

Here are photos of Pope Leo in Chiclayo on Nov. 13:

Gallup: U.S. death penalty support drops below 50% for first time in decades

Public support for the death penalty in the United States has dropped below 50% for the first time since 1971, according to a new survey from Gallup.

The survey of 1,200 adults between Oct. 1–19 found that a plurality of Americans still support the death penalty, but the number sat at 49%. It found that 45% oppose the death penalty and 5% did not have an opinion. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Gallup’s findings show a continued decline in public support for the death penalty since 1994 when 80% of Americans supported it. The last time support for the death penalty was at 49% was in 1971, after which public support steadily climbed up to the 1994 peak.

Only three surveys published by Gallup over the last 70 years found public support lower than 49%. This was in 1957 when support was 47%, in 1965 when support was 45%, and in 1966 when support was 42%.

From 1994 to 2026, a substantial decline in support for the death penalty came from Democrats and independents; however, Republican support has gone down as well. In the past 32 years, support of Democrats decreased from 75% to 28%, support of independents decreased from 79% to 50%, and support of Republicans decreased from 84% to 73%.

“We know that the death penalty is a life issue, not a political issue, which is why it’s particularly encouraging to see that support for capital punishment has decreased among both Republicans and Democrats,” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the executive director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, told EWTN News.

The Catholic Mobilizing Network works closely with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on efforts to oppose the death penalty.

It’s particularly encouraging to see that support for capital punishment has decreased among both Republicans and Democrats.”

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy

Catholic Mobilizing Network

“The decline is consistent with what we see traveling across the country and speaking with people in the pews and people of goodwill: More and more people realize that capital punishment neither deters crime nor brings healing for victims,” Vaillancourt Murphy said.

“As the American public becomes less tolerant of this barbaric practice, God willing, more resources and attention can be focused on murder victims and their families to create pathways toward healing and possibly even forgiveness,” she added.

According to the survey, younger people are less likely to support the death penalty than older people. It found support for the death penalty among those aged 18‐29 at 39%, among those aged 30‐49 at 49%, among those aged 50‐64 at 54%, and among those aged 65 and older at 53%.

Although Gallup’s survey suggests a strong decline in public support, a separate survey from Pew Research Center from July found that 66% of Americans support the death penalty for people convicted of murder, as do 65% of Catholic Americans. Gallup’s survey did not break down results by religion.

Canadian bishops ask Parliament to ‘split’ euthanasia bill, urging advance requests not be allowed

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has called on the Canadian government to revise Bill C-41, the proposed Medical Assistance in Dying Safeguards Act, arguing that its provisions on advance requests for euthanasia raise serious ethical, legal, and human rights concerns.

In a parliamentary brief released Nov. 12, the bishops urged members of Parliament to separate two distinct issues in the legislation: the permanent exclusions of mental illness as the sole underlying medical condition for eligibility for medical assistance in dying (MAID) and the proposed authorization of advance requests for euthanasia.

Bill C-41 was introduced in Parliament on Oct. 27 and is at its second reading in the House of Commons.

The CCCB also called for greater investment in palliative care, healthcare, and practical supports for people living with serious illnesses, disabilities, and declining independence.

Mosul honors 2 Christian martyrs as questions remain over return of displaced families

Two streets in Mosul, Iraq, now bear the names of Christian clergy killed during years of violence against the cityʼs Christian community.

ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, reported that the latest dedication honors Syriac Orthodox Father Paul Iskandar, who was killed in 2006, with the street outside St. Ephrem Cathedral named in his memory. A nearby street was previously named after Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, who died following his abduction in 2008.

Archbishop Nicodemus Daoud Matti Sharaf welcomed the recognition but cautioned that symbolic gestures alone cannot encourage displaced Christians to return. He stressed that genuine security and stability are essential for rebuilding trust and restoring the Christian presence in Mosul.

Irish archbishop draws attention to ‘threat of digitally enabled human trafficking’

The archbishop of Armagh and primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, has called for “renewed and collective action against human trafficking” in the face of “advances in digital technology [that] are creating new opportunities for the exploitation of vulnerable people.”

Martin made the comments in a keynote address at the 20th anniversary conference of Act to Prevent Trafficking on Nov. 10 at the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission in Dublin. He drew attention to Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas and “the growing threat of digitally enabled trafficking and new forms of modern slavery.”

Indonesian bishops call for Church to address poverty, other major challenges

Following their plenary assembly Nov. 4–10, the Indonesian bishops called on the Catholic Church to “move beyond pastoral statements and programs and take concrete action to address poverty, environmental degradation, and other challenges facing the country,” LiCAS News reported.

The bishops made the statement at the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference, which focused on the theme “Building a Sustainable Economy and Our Common Home.” The bishops also stressed the need to translate Church teachings and pastoral commitments into practical initiatives that respond to the needs of communities.

Catholics join network urging EU to create new agriculture policy

A coalition of faith-based organizations working on food systems across the 27 European Union member states has called on European policymakers to strengthen environmental protections, support small-scale farmers, and promote sustainable food production in the next Common Agricultural Policy for 2028–2034.

In its position paper titled “A Christian Vision for the New Common Agricultural Policy,” published in October, the Our Daily Bread Network argues that EU agricultural policy should reflect Christian principles of justice, stewardship of creation, and solidarity with farmers and consumers. It describes the relationship between farmers, the land, and animals as a covenant that must be protected through responsible agricultural practices.

The report identifies three priorities: justice for farmers, justice for all the living world, and justice for the people of Europe, and also stresses that greater flexibility for EU member states in implementing agricultural policy must be accompanied by accountability, transparent spending, and measurable environmental outcomes.

Oman’s first Catholic church celebrates 50 years

A house of prayer established in 1977 in Oman for international workers is now a parish serving tens of thousands and is getting ready to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

LiCAS News reported that an inaugural Mass at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Ruwi, Muscat, celebrated by the apostolic vicar of Southern Arabia, Bishop Paolo Martinelli, OFM Cap, on Nov. 6 opened the celebrations, which will run through Nov. 5, 2027. The golden jubilee marking the parish’s service in the Arabian Peninsula will highlight “the history and missionary role of the country’s Catholic community, which includes migrants from different nations.”

Iraqi Christian political blocs clash over migration ministry

A dispute between Iraqʼs Christian political blocs, Sowayana and Babylon, has intensified over control of the Ministry of Migration and Displacement, a cabinet portfolio traditionally allocated to the Christian community, according to ACI MENA.

Although Babylon holds only two of the five parliamentary seats reserved for Christians, it argues that its alliance with the powerful Coordination Framework (the primary ruling political coalition) gives it sufficient political influence to secure the ministry. Its opponents question whether such alliances reflect the independent political will of Iraqi Christians.

The controversy raises a broader concern: whether political leaders will prioritize competition for government positions or address the emigration, displacement, property rights, and declining population threatening Iraqʼs historic Christian communities.

135-year-old Catholic school in England shuts down

A Catholic school that opened in 1891 and has been at the heart of a rural town in Dorset, England, has shut down suddenly, citing the Labour governmentʼs VAT (value-added tax) on private education. Parents, families, and teachers have formed a working group to reopen the school.

Implemented at the start of 2025, the Labour budget confirmed plans to apply VAT, an indirect consumption tax added to most products and services sold by registered businesses, to private school fees, as well as the plan to end charitable rate relief for private schools.

The school is known for some of its famous alumni, including actress Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and Baroness Dido Harding. The closure has affected 600 pupils and 180 members of staff.

The company’s chief executive, Hugh Dickinson, said they had not been able to overcome mounting financial pressures despite every effort to turn it around. The Catholic Schools Trust, a charity that holds the schoolʼs land and buildings, called the closure is “deeply concerning.”

Isabella Reed contributed to this report.

Vatican to mark 10th World Day of the Poor with Mass, lunch, and donated hygiene kits

On Nov. 15, the Dicastery for Evangelization will celebrate the 10th World Day of the Poor with Mass for people in need in St. Peter’s Basilica. Lunch with Pope Leo XIV will follow a week later on Nov. 22, after his trip in South America.

According to the Vatican, lunch will include ice cream donated by Guttilla Gelateria and will be accompanied by music from the National Fanfare of the Italian Red Cross. At the end, participants will leave with a personal hygiene kit donated by Procter & Gamble.

With Pope Leo completing his tour of South America, he has designated Archbishop Luis Marin de San Martin, OSA, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, to celebrate the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Nov. 15.

Free healthcare at the heart of the Vatican

Founded in 2015 under Pope Francis, the Madre di Misericordia Clinic, and, since 2025, the San Martino Clinic, continue to offer free medical consultations and medication to the poor and homeless in Rome. During the week of the World Day of the Poor, the clinics will be open for longer hours to provide general and specialist medical visits, cancer screenings, flu vaccines, and blood exams.

Dr. Massimo Ralli, undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, noted that an additional examination room has been added to one of the Vatican health clinics, which are designed for people who “do not have documents and cannot access the Italian healthcare system.”

These two clinics are run by 120 volunteers, including doctors, pharmacists, technicians, and nurses covering 26 specialties. Other volunteers give their time welcoming and talking to those who come to use the services, providing comfort in a nonmedical capacity.

“These people don’t know where to go so they come here and can access specialists in cardiology, ophthalmology, or gastroenterologists,” Ralli explained to EWTN News. The clinics also cover dental problems, because everyone struggles with this, he said, but especially if they do not have the wherewithal to manage the pain, “those who wish to go for job interviews [will struggle getting hired].”

To tackle this, Ralli explained that “if they need new teeth we also help them by covering the cost of new dentures.” Another area the clinics cover is eyesight, because people who cannot see struggle to live a full life “so in this place they can get a visit, and we can also get the glasses.”

On this 10th World Day of the Poor, the Church remembers what St. John Paul II said: “The poor are not a problem to be solved but a people to be welcomed and loved.”

This statement rings true today as the Vatican prepares to welcome around 1,300 of those living on the street to a lunch with the pontiff on Nov. 22. In welcoming those living on the margins as honored guests rather than strangers, the Vatican seeks to embody the spirit of St. Francis and bear witness to the truth that the Lord remains the refuge of the poor.

Pope Leo XIV, back in his former diocese, says all Christians are called to be missionaries

CHICLAYO, Peru — Pope Leo XIV returned on Friday to his former diocese, where he received an ecstatic welcome and seemed equally moved to be back.

“What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo! It is a blessing for me to be with you once again,” Leo said at the start of his homily at an open-air Mass in an arid plain outside the city.

Then he added a poignant reminder that, despite the hectic pace of his 12-day trip to South America — which has left him seemingly unfazed a week into the journey — he had cancer surgery only a month ago.

“Thank you for your affection, support, and prayers, especially for my health during this time of trial which, with God’s help, I am overcoming,” the pope said. 

Approximately 1 million people lined the pope’s route to the Mass site on the Pampas de Pimentel, and another 500,000 attended the liturgy, according to the Vatican.

Leo served as bishop of Chiclayo for eight years out of two decades in total as a missionary in Peru. He is the first foreign missionary in at least centuries to have been elected to the papacy.

But in his homily, he reminded his congregation that they were all called to evangelize.

“All Christians, whether ordained ministers or lay faithful — regardless of the degree of formation we have received in the faith — are missionary disciples,” the pope said.

For most laity, he said, the task of evangelization takes the form of “the witness of an authentically Christian and coherent life.” 

The pope said achieving that life “is not merely the fruit of our own will, but it is also a grace for which we must implore the Lord and with which we are called to cooperate through our personal commitment and effort.”

Leo said that good works are a necessary concomitant to evangelization, “because the proclamation of the faith is linked to charity and the care of those most in need.”

He also stressed that the welcome of the evangelist does not mean suspension of moral rigor, since Jesus “invites us to conform our lives to his in faithful obedience to his commandments.”

“Without truth, love degenerates into mere sentimentality, while truth without love becomes rigid and cold,” the pope said.

Austrian bishops adopt first rules for AI in the Church

The Austrian Bishops' Conference has adopted its first rules on the use of artificial intelligence in the Church, declaring that AI may never take the place of human relationships, pastoral conversations, or the rites of the Church.

“The use of AI in the celebration of the sacraments, preaching, liturgy, or pastoral care may only be supportive,” a core provision of the new framework states. “Replacing human relationships, pastoral conversations, community, or rituals with AI is inadmissible and is expressly rejected.”

The bishops published the provision in their press statement on Thursday, explaining: “Particularly in preaching, liturgy, and pastoral care, the irreplaceability of personal encounter and human relationship must be preserved.”

The full document section is titled “Framework Regulation on the Use of AI Systems in the Catholic Church in Austria and Its Institutions.” It takes effect once it is published in the next official gazette of the bishops' conference. The bishops met in Salzburg from Monday to Thursday.

“Artificial intelligence is reaching ever more areas of life. The opportunities it brings are matched by high risks,” the statement said. “AI also opens up new possibilities for the work and mission of the Church. Its use brings new ethical, legal, and social challenges and calls for responsible handling.”

“The rules are grounded in the Christian image of man, the inviolable dignity of every person, and respect for their freedom,” the bishops said. “AI should serve the human person and strengthen him in his responsibility, not replace him. Its use therefore requires critical review, human oversight, and orientation toward truth, justice, and the common good.”

The framework also sets organizational requirements. “Among other things, the rules provide that every diocese must appoint a person responsible for AI,” the bishops' conference said. “For cooperation across Austria, a new working group is being set up that includes all diocesan AI officers.” Experts in data protection, information technology, and theological ethics will also take part, as will the Austrian Conference of Religious Orders.

In November 2025 the bishops' conference set up a working group on the use of artificial intelligence in the Church. Led by Bishop Hermann Glettler of Innsbruck, it was tasked with examining legal and ethical questions as well as practical applications for the Church.

At their summer plenary in Mariazell in June, the bishops explicitly endorsed Pope Leo XIVʼs social encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.

“Pope Leo calls on us, even in the face of the promises of AI, to preserve the greatness of the human person, indeed the ‘beauty of being human,’ as a corrective and a standard,” they wrote at the time.

They quoted the encyclical: “It is not enough for artificial intelligence to make us more efficient or connected; it must also serve to build a universal human family, with shared rights and duties, where digital proximity becomes a real opportunity for encounter and mutual care.”

In the era of artificial intelligence, the encyclical says, “ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human.” The bishops added in June: “Precisely because it is the rich and powerful who develop AI systems and use them to their advantage, we need the perspective of the poor, the weak, and the disadvantaged that the pope has called for.”

“The future will not be decided by the performance of our systems but by whether we take responsibility — for the human person and for a culture of encounter, love, and peace,” they wrote.

This story was first published by CNA Deutsch, the German-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.