Pope Leo XIV criticizes pharmaceutical industry’s role in scourge of opioid addiction
Pope Leo XIV meets with participants of the fifth World Meeting of Popular Movements on Oct. 23, 2025, in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Oct 23, 2025 / 15:26 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday decried the devastating impact of opioid addiction in the U.S., criticizing the pharmaceutical industry for its lack of “a global ethic” for the sake of profits.
In an Oct. 23 meeting with participants of the fifth World Meeting of Popular Movements held inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall, the pope directly spoke out against “unbridled consumerism” and its negative impacts on people living in both poor and wealthy nations.
“In the current culture, with the help of advertising and publicity, a cult of physical well-being is being promoted, almost an idolatry of the body and, in this vision, the mystery of pain is reduced to something totally inhuman,” he said.
“This can lead also to dependence on pain medications, the sale of which obviously goes to increasing the earnings of the same pharmaceutical companies,” he continued. “This also leads to dependence on opioids, as has been devastating particularly in the United States.”
Describing fentanyl as the “drug of death” and the “second most common cause of death among the poor” in the U.S., the pope said the harm of such synthetic drugs extends beyond the country’s borders.
“The spread of new synthetic drugs, ever more lethal, is not only a crime involving trafficking of drugs but really has to do with the production of pharmaceuticals and their profit, lacking a global ethic,” he said on Thursday.
Besides the pharmaceutical industry, the Holy Father also criticized the influence of big tech in promoting unhealthy, consumerist behaviors among people of all ages.
“How can a poor young person live with hope and without anxiety when the social media constantly exalt an unbridled consumerism and a totally unrealizable level of economic success?” he said.
“Another problem not often recognized is represented by the dependency on digital gambling,” he continued. “The platforms are designed to create compulsive dependence and generate addictive habits that create addiction.”
Throughout the Oct. 23 gathering, the Holy Father expressed his solidarity with social leaders who are “moved by the desire of love” in order to “find solutions in a society dominated by unjust systems” present in the world today.
“Your many and creative initiatives can become new public policies and social rights. Yours is a legitimate and necessary effort,” he told those present at the audience.
“This makes you champions of humanity, witnesses to justice, poets of solidarity,” he added.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance attends Mass at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre
U.S. Vice President JD Vance tours the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. / Credit: Nathan HOWARD / POOL / AFP / Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 23, 2025 / 13:20 pm (CNA).
U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, attended a private Mass celebrated by Franciscan monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Thursday during a three-day diplomatic trip to Israel.
Vance, the nation’s second Catholic vice president, met with a group of bishops and went to confession prior to Mass, according to the White House Pool Report.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was constructed in the early fourth century during the reign of Constantine the Great, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. It is jointly operated by the Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, and four Oriental Orthodox churches.
According to tradition, the church is built on the site of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. It is a premier pilgrimage destination for Christians who visit the Holy Land.
“What an amazing blessing to have visited the site of Christ’s death and resurrection,” Vance later said in a post on X. “I am immensely grateful to the Greek, Armenian, and Catholic priests who care for this most sacred of places. May the Prince of Peace have mercy on us and bless our efforts for peace.”
During his visit, Vance knelt in silent prayer in front of The Stone of Anointing. Many believe this to be the stone on which Jesus Christ’s body was anointed with oils and balms before his burial.
He also prayed before the Calvary Altar, which is believed to be the location where Christ was crucified.
According to the pool report, Vance and his wife both lit candles in the church. Vance also lit two candles with fire from Christ’s tomb to bring back to the United States.
“We are sending these lights to the White House,” an Armenian Orthodox bishop said, according to the pool report. “May God bless America, the United States, and Armenia and our friendship.”
Vance’s trip to Israel comes as the White House is working with Israel and Hamas to maintain a ceasefire, which halted a two-year-long war in Gaza. Earlier during his trip, he asked Christians to pray for peace in the region.
“Christians have many titles for Jesus Christ — and one of them is the Prince of Peace,” the vice president said. “And I’d ask people of all faiths, in particular my fellow Christians, to pray that the Prince of Peace can continue to work a miracle in this region of the world.”
“I think with your prayers and with God’s providence, and with a very good team behind me, I think we’re going to get it done,” he said.
Pope Leo XIV and King Charles III make history with first joint prayer since Reformation
Pope Leo XIV and King Charles III walk together in the Sistine Chapel during a historic meeting that included a prayer service at the Vatican, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media
Vatican City, Oct 23, 2025 / 09:34 am (CNA).
History was made in the Sistine Chapel on Thursday as Pope Leo XIV and King Charles III prayed side by side, marking the first time since the Protestant Reformation that a reigning British monarch and a pope have prayed together during a royal state visit to the Vatican.
Pope Leo XIV led the midday prayer of the Divine Office, standing beneath Michelangelo’s fresco of “The Last Judgment” and flanked by Anglican Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, King Charles, and Queen Camilla.
The ecumenical prayer service featured the Sistine Chapel Choir along with the choirs from St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle and His Majesty’s Chapel Royal.
The choirs sang “Come, Holy Ghost, Who Ever One,” a hymn by St. Ambrose translated into English by St. John Henry Newman. Pope Leo will declare Newman, the 19th-century English cardinal and Anglican convert, a doctor of the Church on Nov. 1.
King Charles attended Newman’s canonization in 2019 and recently became the first British monarch to visit the Birmingham Oratory, which Newman founded in 1848.
During the prayer, the choirs sang verses of Psalms 8 and 64 in Latin and English. A reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans (8:22–27) was read aloud before Pope Leo and Cottrell offered the closing prayer together in English.
Cardinals, bishops, and Anglican representatives attended the prayer service, which was the highlight of the king’s first state visit to the Holy See since his accession in 2022.
As part of the state visit, Pope Leo approved the conferral of a new title on the monarch: “Royal Confrater” of the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. Cardinal James Michael Harvey, the basilica’s archpriest, will formally bestow the honor during an afternoon ecumenical service at the tomb of St. Paul.
In return, Pope Leo XIV was offered the title of “Papal Confrater” of St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, an invitation Pope Leo accepted.
“These mutual gifts of ‘confraternity’ are recognitions of spiritual fellowship and are deeply symbolic of the journey the Church of England (of which His Majesty is Supreme Governor) and the Roman Catholic Church have traveled over the past 500 years,” the British Embassy to the Holy See said in a statement.
Before the prayer service, King Charles and Queen Camilla met privately with Pope Leo in the Apostolic Palace. The king also met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister. The Vatican said discussions focused on environmental protection, fighting poverty, and promoting ecumenical dialogue.
“Particular attention was given to the shared commitment to promoting peace and security in the face of global challenges,” the Holy See Press Office said.
King Charles also conferred on the pope the honor of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Bath, while the pope conferred on the king the honor of Knight Grand Cross with the Collar of the Vatican Order of Pope Pius IX and on Queen Camilla the honor of Dame Grand Cross of the same order.
The royal visit comes as King Charles continues treatment for cancer, first diagnosed in early 2024.
Buckingham Palace said that the king’s state visit — postponed earlier this year due to the poor health of Pope Francis — celebrates both the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year and “the ecumenical work between the Church of England and the Catholic Church, reflecting the jubilee year’s theme of walking together as ‘Pilgrims of Hope.’”
Following the Sistine Chapel service, Pope Leo and King Charles met business and church leaders in the Apostolic Palace’s Sala Regia for a discussion on environmental sustainability and care for creation.
After the Vatican meetings, King Charles is scheduled to visit the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, reviving the historic ties between England and the papal basilica. After the arrival in England of Roman monk-missionaries such as St. Augustine of Canterbury and St. Paulinus of York in the sixth and seventh centuries, Saxon rulers including Kings Offa and Æthelwulf contributed to the upkeep of the apostles’ tombs in Rome.
By the late Middle Ages, the kings of England were recognized as “protectors” of the Basilica of St. Paul and abbey, and its heraldic shield came to include the insignia of the Order of the Garter. That tradition was interrupted by the Reformation and the ensuing centuries of estrangement.
A newly commissioned chair bearing the royal coat of arms and the Latin phrase “Ut unum sint” (“That they may be one”) has been installed in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls for King Charles and his successors to use during future visits.
King Charles visited the Vatican several times as Prince of Wales, including for the funeral of John Paul II and for Newman’s canonization. His last papal audience was with Pope Francis in April, shortly before Francis’ death, though that was not an official state visit.
Queen Elizabeth II, Charles’ mother, met five popes during her 70-year reign but never participated in a public prayer with any of them.
French bishop denounces euthanasia as contradicting ‘immemorial law’: ‘You shall not kill’
Bishop Philippe Christory of Chartres, France. / Credit: Eichthus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
The bishop of Chartres, France, Philippe Christory, addressed a letter to the senators of Eure-et-Loir, a region belonging to his diocese, in which he stated that assisted suicide and euthanasia contradict “an immemorial law: You shall not kill.”
The French prelate’s letter comes at a crucial moment as the “end-of-life” bill is under legislative review after years of political pressure to legalize euthanasia in the country.
The bill, filed last May, introduces the concept of “assistance in dying,” a term that encompasses both euthanasia — where a third party directly administers the lethal substance — and assisted suicide, in which the patient performs the final act.
Although the procedure must be subject to a medical evaluation, the legislative proposal also provides that adults suffering from a serious and incurable condition that causes unbearable physical or psychological suffering could be eligible.
On May 24 of this year, members of the National Assembly approved the creation of an offense for obstructing access to “assistance in dying,” which would criminalize any attempt to prevent the act itself or access to information about it.
In this context, Christory appealed to the right to conscientious objection of those doctors who “cannot contemplate committing a lethal act,” as it would go against their conscience “and the very purpose of their profession, which is to care for and support patients in their life project even if this is moving toward its physical end.”
The bishop denounced the French Legislature’s lack of support for these professionals as “unacceptable,” since “freedom of conscience should never be taken away or limited; it’s a fundamental right of every person.”
After lamenting the high suicide rate in France — more than 8,000 suicides were recorded in 2023 — Christory recalled that the essence of an advanced civilization “is to promote life and support the lives of those who suffer” and noted that those who ask to end their lives often lack support.
“The end of life can be a decisive moment for reconsideration, reconciliation, and sharing with loved ones,” he added. At the end of his letter, he urged the senators to “promote a plan for life, not a plan for death that would stain our culture.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Self-care is stewardship, not selfishness, Catholic therapist tells chaplains
Father Adam Muda, a chaplain for the U.S. Army, celebrates Mass on the field with soldiers while in Germany. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Adam Muda
CNA Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
During Pastoral Care Week, celebrated Oct. 19–25, a Catholic psychotherapist encouraged a group of Catholic chaplains and ministers to pursue prayer, rest, and self-care in light of burnout — a challenge that often accompanies their unique work.
At an Oct. 22 webinar, “Carrying the Cross Without Burnout: Self-Care for Catholic Chaplains,” Adrienne Koller, a Catholic psychotherapist and founder of Strong Self Psychotherapy, encouraged chaplains to make time for spiritual and emotional renewal.
The webinar, organized by the National Association of Catholic Chaplains (NACC), a group that educates and supports Catholic chaplains across the country, highlighted the importance of finding rest amid the emotional toll of ministry.
“God doesn’t call us to self-erasure,” Koller told the nearly 100 chaplains who attended the webinar. “He calls us to stewardship of our bodies, our minds, and spirits.”
Koller described self-care as “stewardship” and “caring for the vessel God entrusted to you.”
“One of the most powerful mindset shifts I’ve seen in ministry is this: Self-care is not selfishness; it’s stewardship,” Koller said. “You are the vessel God entrusted with the work he gave you, and taking care of that vessel honors him.”
“You’re not taking away from your calling. You’re strengthening it,” she said. “Renewal isn’t an indulgence — it’s obedience.”
Erica Cohen Moore, executive director of NACC, highlighted the importance of caring for chaplains, both during Pastoral Care Week and throughout the year.
“Our chaplains are often called into spaces where few others are willing or able to go,” Cohen Moore told CNA. “They serve people in some of the most marginalized and challenging situations, where grief and suffering can be profound.”
Pastoral Care Week “gives opportunities for organizations and institutions of all types to recognize the spiritual caregivers in their midst and the ministry that the caregivers provide,” according to the NACC’s website.
Chaplains are often priests, but seminarians, deacons, religious brothers and sisters, and laymen and laywomen can all serve as chaplains, providing professional spiritual and emotional support in a range of areas — often in prisons, hospitals, fire departments, and campuses.
To help prepare and support chaplains, the NACC offers a variety of resources, training, community, and support for chaplains, both Catholic and non-Catholic.
What does burnout look like?
“Over the years, I’ve walked with countless individuals who appear incredibly strong on the outside yet wrestle with exhaustion, doubt, or the feeling that their work has taken more from them than they have time to replenish,” Koller told attendees.
Koller noted that the “emotional weight” of service can lead to burnout.
“That emotional weight, it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong; it means you’re human,” she said. “But we do take on that emotional weight, and that can lead, if unchecked, to burnout.”
“Burnout doesn’t happen because we’re weak or we’re incapable,” Koller continued. “It happens because we care deeply, we give fully, and sometimes we forget to refill our own cup.”
To combat the weight of service, Koller encouraged ministers to pray before and after each difficult meeting or encounter, and to offer the weight of those challenges to the Lord. She also led the group in grounding prayer exercises that incorporate breathing into prayer.
Cohen Moore noted that burnout is a “very real concern” that chaplains face — one that her organization works to combat through the resources they provide.
The association educates chaplains with a program called Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), which is “a process that equips them to manage burnout and care for themselves and one another,” according to Cohen Moore.
The group also offers webinars on topics such as self-care, mental illness and trauma, and mental health, as well as networking groups and in-person gatherings, and publishes a magazine called Works of Hope.
The association plans to launch a learning institute early next year to include a course on “sustaining pastoral ministers and helping them avoid burnout,” Cohen Moore said.
“Burnout is a very real concern in our field, and we take it seriously as we continue exploring new ways to provide care and connection,” Cohen Moore said.
‘I will give you rest’
When Koller speaks with “those in service, especially chaplains and first responders,” she said that one verse “always comes to mind.”
In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Koller noted that Christ “doesn’t say: ‘Keep pushing, work harder, work harder, deplete yourself, run yourself into the ground.”
“No — he says, ‘Come to me,’” she said.
“That invitation isn’t to perform,” Koller continued. “It’s to rest, in a way, to surrender the illusion that we have to carry everything alone. That’s where our renewal begins.”
St. Carlo Acutis’ mother on what it’s like to be the mother of a saint
Antonia Salzano is the mother of St. Carlo Acutis. / Credit: “EWTN Noticias”/Screenshot
ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Antonia Salzano, the mother of St. Carlo Acutis, who was present with the rest of her family at his canonization on Sept. 7, recently shared what it’s like to be the mother of a saint and offered valuable advice to other mothers who, like her, have gone through the painful experience of the death of a child.
Salzano shared having had the opportunity to attend the canonization with Assunta Carlini Goretti, the mother of St. Maria Goretti, who saw the child martyr of purity declared a saint on June 24, 1950.
When asked what it is like to be the mother of a saint, Salzano in an interview with “EWTN Noticias,” the Spanish-language broadcast edition of EWTN News, said: “Naturally, it’s a privilege, but also a duty, because first and foremost, I have to become a saint myself, because the call is also for me. I have to set an example.”
The mother of St. Carlo Acutis, who died at age 15 in 2006 from leukemia, emphasized that being the mother of a saint is also “a call to help others, because people are in darkness. Many people haven’t found God.”
The saint’s parents — Salzano and her husband, Andrea Acutis — accompanied by his younger twin siblings, Michele and Francesca, brought the offertory gifts to Pope Leo XIV during the canonization Mass.
“If I can give advice, speak a good word to help souls, I do it gladly, with great love, because I think the most important thing is to find God in our lives and live in God’s light,” emphasized the mother of St. Carlo, the “Apostle of the Eucharist” who created a virtual exhibition on Eucharistic miracles around the world.
Salzano’s counsel to those who have suffered the death of a child
“The important thing is to understand that what matters is loving God [and] our neighbor. This is the most important thing. If you lose your child, it’s not that you’ve lost him or her for eternity. It’s not goodbye. It’s to find yourself in another, more beautiful life, with God, with God’s light,” Salzano said.
“Carlo said that death is the passage to true life. Whoever is afraid of death does so because they don’t trust in God, they don’t have faith in God. Because if we have trust in God, we cannot be afraid of death,” she continued.
The only thing we should fear, Salzano pointed out, “is sin, because this can separate us forever from God. Death is ultimately the encounter with the beloved, the encounter with the most beautiful thing in the universe, with God.”
“Carlo began going to Mass every day when he was 7 years old. He wrote on that occasion: ‘To always be united to Jesus, this is my life plan,’” Salzano recalled.
“The encounter with Jesus was the most important part of his day. Naturally, this didn’t prevent Carlo from having a normal life, like all young people — his studies, his sports, all his friends — but for Carlo, the central focus was the encounter with Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament,” Salzano said.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
St. John of Capistrano: Franciscan priest and missionary who achieved military victory
St. John Capistrano and St. Bernardine of Siena. Museum of Fine Arts of Granada. Painting, oil on canvas, by Alonso Cano (1653-1657) for an altarpiece of the disappeared Franciscan convent of San Antonio and San Diego, Granada. / Credit: Jl FilpoC, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
CNA Staff, Oct 23, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).
On Oct. 23, the Catholic Church celebrates the life of St. John of Capistrano, a Franciscan priest whose life included a political career, extensive missionary journeys, efforts to reunite separated Eastern Christians with Rome, and a historically important turn at military leadership.
Invoked as a patron of military chaplains, St. John of Capistrano was praised by St. John Paul II — whose feast day was yesterday, Oct. 22 — in a 2002 general audience for his “glorious evangelical witness” and as a priest who “gave himself with great generosity for the salvation of souls.”
Born in Italy in 1385, John lost his father — a French or possibly German knight who had settled in Capistrano — at a young age. John’s mother took care to have him educated, and after learning Latin he went on to study both civil law and Church law in Perugia. An outstanding student, he soon became a prominent public figure and was appointed governor of the city at age 26.
John showed high standards of integrity in his civic career, and in 1416 he labored to end a war that had erupted between Perugia and the prominent House of Malatesta. But when the nobles had John imprisoned, he began to question his life’s direction. Encountering St. Francis of Assisi in a dream, he resolved to embrace poverty, chastity, and obedience with the Franciscans.
Abandoning his possessions and social status, John joined the religious order in October 1416. He found a mentor in St. Bernardine of Siena, known for his bold preaching and his method of prayer focused on the invocation of the name of Jesus. Taking after his teacher in these respects, John began preaching as a deacon in 1420 and was ordained a priest in 1425.
John successfully defended his mentor from a charge of heresy made against his way of devotion, though he found less success in his efforts to resolve internal controversy among the followers of St. Francis. A succession of popes entrusted important matters to John, including the effort to reunite Eastern and Western Christendom at the Ecumenical Council of Florence.
Drawing immense crowds in his missionary travels throughout Italy, John also found success as a preacher in Central Europe, where he opposed the Hussites’ error regarding the nature and administration of the Eucharist. After Constantinople fell to Turkish invaders in 1453, Pope Nicholas V sent John on a mission to rally other European leaders in defense of their lands.
Nicholas’ successor Pope Callixtus III was even more eager to see the Christian world defend itself against the invading forces. When Sultan Mehmet II sought to extend his territorial gains into Serbia and Hungary, John joined the celebrated general Janos Hunyadi in his defense of Belgrade. The priest personally led a section of the army in its historic victory on Aug. 6, 1456.
Neither John nor the general, however, would survive long past the battle.
Weakened by the campaign against the Turks, Hunyadi became sick and died soon after the victory at Belgrade. John survived to preach Hunyadi’s funeral sermon, but his own extraordinary life came to an end after a painful illness on Oct. 23, 1456. St. John of Capistrano was canonized in 1724.
This story was first published on Oct. 21, 2012, and has been updated.
Military archdiocese: Army’s response to canceled religious contracts ‘inadequate’
Archbishop Timothy Broglio speaks at Mass on Dec. 3, 2023. / Credit: The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 22, 2025 / 18:04 pm (CNA).
The Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, expressed concern that the U.S. Army is not adequately addressing its discontent with canceled religious contracts, which the archdiocese said is straining its ability to minister to Catholics in the armed forces.
This month, the Army canceled all contracts for three roles: coordinators of religious education (CRE), Catholic pastoral life coordinators (CPLC), and musicians. The contract terminations affected Catholics and those of other faiths.
CREs served as catechists trained by the archdiocese to assist the priests in religious education in the military chapels. The archdiocese also trained CPLCs who offered administrative support such as liturgy coordination, assistance with sacramental record documentation, and weekly bulletin preparation. Contracts also included musicians, usually pianists who played music during Mass.
Military Services Archbishop Timothy Broglio sent a letter to Congress on Oct. 17 saying Army officials assured him that religious affairs specialists (RAS) and directors of religious education (DREs) — federal employees — would accommodate the needs of the archdiocese amid the canceled contracts but that he believes this is not possible.
Neither an RAS nor a DRE is a trained catechist, he explained, and neither are properly trained or qualified to perform the roles of people who served in the canceled contracts. There is no requirement for a DRE to be Catholic or for an RAS to have any faith.
In response to the archdiocesan complaint, an Army spokesperson told CNA it would reexamine its contract support for RASs and DREs “to mitigate any potential impact during this period.“
Archdiocese: Response is ‘wholly inadequate’
Elizabeth A. Tomlin, a lawyer for the archdiocese, told CNA that the Army’s response is “wholly inadequate” and “demonstrates the spokesperson’s total lack of understanding of the issue.”
“Merely eight DREs across the entire Army are Catholics, so most DREs are not qualified to direct Catholic religious education,” Tomlin said.
“[RASs] are soldiers, [usually] anywhere from private first class to staff sergeant in rank,” she explained. “There is no requirement whatsoever for RASs to be Catholic or have any training in catechesis or catechetical methodology that could possibly equip them to coordinate religious education.”
Tomlin rejected the Army’s assertion that people in these positions could fulfill the work of the CREs, CPLCs, or musicians.
“Without meeting the basic requirement of a catechist, namely, to be a confirmed Catholic, these people are not qualified to be involved in Catholic religious education programs whatsoever,” she said.
Tomlin said the only way to have music during Mass is if someone volunteers.
“It is factually inaccurate that DREs or RASs are fulfilling the duties of CREs, CPLCs, or liturgical musicians,” Tomlin said.
‘No knowledge of our faith’
Jena Swanson — who worked as a Catholic CRE at Fort Drum from August 2024 until her contract was canceled on March 31, 2025 — told CNA she agrees with the archdiocese’s assessment that those employees cannot fulfill the roles of those whose contracts were canceled.
She said she helped facilitate religious education classes, Bible studies, sacrament preparation classes, and retreats, and collected sacramental records, among a variety of other tasks. She said she mostly worked independently of the DRE because that employee did not have much knowledge about the Catholic faith.
“The DRE is not guaranteed to be Catholic depending on the installation military families are stationed at,” Swanson said. “In our 13 years of military family life (my husband is active duty Army), we’ve experienced one Catholic DRE and only for two years.”
She said in her experience, RASs “are as helpful as they can be” but often “have no knowledge of our faith.”
Swanson said the Catholic community at Fort Drum “was thrown into a bit of chaos” once her contract ended. Some weeks there were no teachers for religious education, families did not know whom to direct questions to, and weekly Mass attendance dropped about 50%.
“Our families want answers and want to continue coming to our parish, but if these options are not open it will drastically affect attendance and faith formation,” Swanson said.
Venezuelan president accuses cardinal of plotting against saint’s canonization
Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela. / Credit: Venezuelan Presidential Press
Caracas, Venezuela, Oct 22, 2025 / 17:34 pm (CNA).
Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela, accused Cardinal Baltazar Porras of conspiring to prevent the canonization of Venezuela’s first male saint, José Gregorio Hernández.
“There were many people who conspired from the highest [levels of the] Curia against José Gregorio,” Maduro said on an Oct. 20 television program.
“Some priests, like Baltazar Porras, dedicated their lives to conspiring against José Gregorio Hernández. I say this by name: Baltazar Porras dedicated his entire life to ensuring that José Gregorio would not [be declared a saint], but Baltazar Porras has been defeated by God, by the people, and today José Gregorio is a saint despite you [Porras] and your people,” said the president, who did not attend the canonization ceremony at the Vatican.
On Oct. 19, along with Venezuelan nun Carmen Rendiles and five others, Hernández, known as the “doctor of the poor,” was canonized by Pope Leo XIV.
Those close to Porras told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that the cardinal will not respond to Maduro’s accusations.
Maduro holds the leadership of Venezuela’s government but is accused, nationally and internationally, of committing fraud in the 2024 presidential election, in which he was allegedly reelected for a third six-year term.
The controversial Venezuelan leader is facing accusations of drug trafficking and terrorism by the U.S. government, which accuses him of heading a criminal organization known as the Cartel de los Soles.
In addition, the U.S. State Department has offered a $50 million reward “for information leading to the arrest or conviction” of the socialist leader. It is the largest reward offered for the capture of a criminal in the history of the United States.
Maduro’s verbal attack on the archbishop emeritus of Caracas is part of a long history of abuses and threats by the socialist government against the Catholic Church in Venezuela, a practice that appears to be intensifying with the canonization of the country’s first two saints.
The socialist leader’s reaction comes after Porras called last week for the release of all political prisoners in Venezuela, who currently number more than 800, according to the organization Foro Penal.
“We live in a morally unacceptable situation; the decline in the exercise of civil liberties, the growth of poverty, militarization as a form of government that incites violence and introduces it as part of daily life, corruption and the lack of autonomy of public institutions, and the disrespect for the will of the people create a panorama that does not contribute to peaceful coexistence or to overcoming the structural shortcomings of society,” Porras said at an event held at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.
At the same event, Venezuelan Vatican journalist Edgar Beltrán was assaulted by businessman Ricardo Cisneros, a member of the Venezuelan government delegation.
During the event, Beltrán’s interview with the Vatican’s substitute for the Secretariat of State, Archbishop Edgar Robinson Peña Parra, was forcibly interrupted by Cisneros after the prelate was asked about the Maduro government’s “apparent politicization” of the canonizations, according to Catholic news outlet The Pillar.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin offered a Mass of thanksgiving on Oct. 20 for the canonization of the first two Venezuelan saints, during which he also denounced the existence of “unjust imprisonment” and “oppression” in the country.
Shortly before the canonization Mass on Oct. 19, Porras expressed his “deep joy” and described the event as a “historic moment” for all of Venezuela.
“I give thanks to God for allowing me to share it with all of you,” the archbishop emeritus said at the time.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Cleveland Diocese extends Latin Mass
Bishop Edward Malesic addresses the First Friday Club of Cleveland on Feb. 10, 2022. / Credit: Diocese of Cleveland
CNA Staff, Oct 22, 2025 / 17:04 pm (CNA).
The Diocese of Cleveland has confirmed that the Vatican granted permission for the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) at two diocesan churches for an additional two years.
The extension applies to St. Mary’s Church in Akron and St. Stephen’s in Cleveland, both of which, according to the Catholic Herald, had previously been granted limited approval to continue celebrating the extraordinary form of the Roman rite.
At both parishes, diocesan priests say the Masses, rather than priests from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter or the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, as sometimes occurs in other dioceses.
In an email to CNA, Nancy Fishburn, executive director of communications for the Diocese of Cleveland, said: “The Holy See granted a two-year extension of permission for the two remaining diocesan celebrations of the Latin Mass within the Diocese of Cleveland.”
Pope Francis’ 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes has restricted the use of the pre-Vatican II Mass by requiring Vatican approval for its celebration in parish churches, placing oversight directly under the Holy See. Bishops must now obtain authorization from the Vatican to permit the older form of the Roman rite in their dioceses.
It is unclear when Cleveland Bishop Edward C. Malesic requested the extension. Fishburn told CNA she had no further information.
The extension of the TLM in Cleveland comes even as other dioceses are seeing its cancellation.
In the Diocese of Knoxville last week, Bishop Mark Beckman informed the TLM community in an Oct. 14 letter that “by Jan. 1, 2026, every Latin Mass in the diocese will be celebrated using the 2002 Roman Missal ensuring consistency with the Church’s approved liturgical books while preserving the beauty and reverence you cherish.”
Beckman wrote that he had consulted with the three pastors in the diocese who currently celebrate the TLM, assuring parishioners that the transition away from the extraordinary form was “being handled with utmost pastoral sensitivity and care, honoring both your devotion to the sacred liturgy and the Church’s living tradition.”
In the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, meanwhile, Bishop Michael Martin said in September that the TLM would cease at four parishes and would only be permitted at one chapel beginning Oct. 2.
Brian Williams, a leader of the TLM community in Charlotte, spoke with CNA in September.
“Why is going to the Latin Mass a bad thing? It’s no different from the Ordinariate, or Byzantine, or any other rite. It’s all still Catholic,” he said.
Williams said he and other members of the TLM community are still hopeful that Pope Leo’s pontificate will be more welcoming of the TLM and that things can change, citing a post on X on Sept. 29 showing a priest at the St. Michael’s chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica saying the Mass in the extraordinary form, as well as the recent granting of an exemption to the restrictions imposed by Traditionis Custodes in the San Angelo Diocese in Texas, the first exemption granted under the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV.