‘Love transcends death’: How Singapore’s Chinese Catholics remember their dead
SINGAPORE — At some Catholic funeral wakes in Singapore, visitors are given red strings and invited to join in prayers for the souls of the dead. As they leave, they may be offered flower water to wash with, alongside holy water to sprinkle on the caskets.
Such wakes show how Chinese and Catholic customs around death sit side by side, said Bryan Goh, a historian at the National University of Singapore who studies the history of Christianity in insular Southeast Asia.
Catholics, he said, “find no problem offering joss-sticks at Taoist/Buddhist funeral wakes, focusing on the prayers they say in their heart rather than the form of the action.”
Clergy in Singapore did not see these customs as “something in dire need of correction,” Goh said, “mostly because they viewed certain actions and rituals as performance of filiality, rather than religiosity.”
‘Love transcends death’
Father John Chen, a priest of the Archdiocese of Singapore, told EWTN News that the Catholic faith and Chinese culture share one attitude toward the dead: “Love for our departed loved ones does not end with death. Indeed, love transcends death,” he said.
Students from Buddhist or Taoist families often ask him: “If my parents or grandparents are not Catholic, how can I show them respect without compromising my faith?”
Becoming Catholic means “discerning which cultural practices express values compatible with the Gospel and which may need to be reinterpreted or modified in the light of Christian faith,” he said.
Father Luke Zhang, of the Church of the Holy Trinity, a priest of the Congregation of the Disciples of the Lord, founded in China in 1928 by Archbishop Celso Costantini, who later became a cardinal, said some Catholics keep ancestral tablets at home because they live with relatives who are not Catholic. He encourages them to bow before the tablets, offer flowers and fruit, light candles, and pray for the dead with Catholic prayers.
“Through these practices, we express our respect for and remembrance of the deceased, pray for them, and entrust them to Godʼs merciful hands,” he said.
Burning joss paper or spirit money, however, is “strictly prohibited,” he said.
‘Simply go along’
Matthew Tserng Jia Uei, 61, a semi-retired shipping container assistant who leads the Mandarin-language Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, grew up in a Taoist family and was baptized in 1984. His relatives never insisted that he bow before the family altar.
“They only asked me to do my duty as one of the younger generation and simply go along as a gesture,” he said in written answers in Chinese.
Polly Ng Eng Lan, 65, a retired clerk who accompanies catechumens in the Mandarin-language RCIA at the Church of St. Alphonsus (Novena Church), said priests and catechists generally teach Catholics not to take part in rites of worship, and “only to offer incense to the deceased and pray.”
Michael Robert Tan, 57, an IT director baptized in April 2024, said his RCIA classes touched on what was allowed, including taking part in other faiths' ways of remembering the dead. He keeps no altar or photographs at home. “Nothing, only in my memories,” he said.
Serene Xu, 63, an administrator baptized in 1991, still visits the temple where her familyʼs ashes are kept each Qingming (a traditional Chinese holiday observed to honor ancestors and welcome spring) and on death anniversaries, “to pay my respects and remember them.” Her children, baptized as infants, join the familyʼs Buddhist and Taoist funerals.
“I firmly believe that faith and family traditions can coexist harmoniously when there is mutual respect, understanding, and acceptance,” she said.
Prayer ‘on the couch’
“There has never been a single Chinese way of practicing ancestral worship,” said Michel Chambon of the Initiative for the Study of Asian Catholics.
“Increasingly, people seem to prefer praying privately, in the intimacy of their own hearts, whether on the couch or in bed, rather than gathering before a formal altar,” he said.
Zhang said young Catholics seem “less enthusiastic about memorial activities for the deceased” than their parents' generation, but “perhaps they have their own ways of remembering them, such as a simple prayer in the heart.”
Chen said younger Catholics may seek “to preserve the values of filial piety, gratitude, and family unity while finding contemporary ways to express them.”
For Xu, one hope remains. “Deep in my heart, I continue to hold on to the hope that one day, we will be reunited in our Heavenly Fatherʼs house,” she said.
Notre Dame bests Villanova in Eternal City Tip-Off basketball games
ROME — Notre Dame defeated Villanova in the D1 college basketball season openers on Sunday, Nov. 1, with final scores of 74-72 for the men’s game and 99-75 for the women’s. The Eternal City Tip-Off games, held in Rome, pitted two schools with “shared faith-based traditions and championship pedigrees” against each other in the historically Catholic capital of Italy.
Fans, students, faculty, staff, and alumni from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame filled Rome’s Palazzo dello Sport, a massive arena that seats more than 11,000, to cheer on their men’s and women’s teams in a matchup that was inspired by Pope Leo’s election as the first American pope. After a weekend of welcome receptions, tourism opportunities, and scheduled events, including a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and a papal audience, energy in the stadium was high before the men’s tipoff at 3:30 p.m. local time.
Before the game, Villanova fans confidently expected a Wildcat win: Tom McKernan, a Villanova alumnus from Philadelphia, joked: “We’re not playing [Notre Dame] in football, so I think we have the upper hand. We definitely have more crowd support today, so I’m looking for a big Villanova win.”
But while Notre Dame trailed Villanova for most of the men’s game, they came back with a minute left, pulling ahead for a score of 72-70 after Logan Duncomb’s three-point shot. After a suspenseful final minute, the Fighting Irish secured the game, upsetting the Wildcats by two points. Notre Dame fans erupted into cheers and chants of “Let’s go, Irish!” as Villanova’s much larger fan section sat in shock.
The Fighting Irish win came as a surprise for even Notre Dame fans, since the Wildcats came into the weekend with a few advantages: Besides boasting a storied basketball program, their fan presence in the stadium outnumbered Notre Dame’s supporters by a staggering majority. Most importantly for Villanova, however, was feeling that the pope was on their side: Pope Leo XIV, who graduated from the university in 1977, jokingly told both teams on Saturday that while “the pope doesn’t take sides… Prevost has another opinion.”
But whichever team Pope Leo was rooting for, fans of both sides were thrilled to see the pope during this weekend’s events, with Wildcats and Fighting Irish alike emphasizing that a visit to the Vatican was what made the Eternal City Tip-Off truly special.
Allen and Joanne Herda, parents of a Notre Dame senior from Dallas, said that when they bought their tickets for the game in Rome, they “knew that it would be a pilgrimage.” And while the Herdas were excited to cheer on their basketball team, they said the real main event of the Eternal City Tip-Off was the papal audience Oct. 31.
During the audience, Joanne was able to shake Pope Leo’s hand as he exited the audience hall, a moment she recalled with excitement.
“You got a reflection, a shock of gentleness and peace,” she said. “For me, [this weekend] has been otherworldly and extremely spiritual. I never dreamt that I would have touched the Holy Father, and we went to Mass this morning, and that was so spiritual too. … It’s hard to find the words.”
Father Francisco Carrillo, a priest from Mexico City who lives in Rome while studying for his master’s degree in biblical theology, was invited to the game by friends who are Villanova alumni. “For today, I’m a Villanova fan,” he said. But like the Herdas, Carrillo described the events of the weekend as more than simply a basketball game, calling them “providential.”
He said: “The first time that there’s an American pope, and that he studied in a Catholic university in the States, and then the fact that they organized this NCAA game here in Rome for the pope… it’s a huge event, not only on a human level but also spiritually.”
Second win for Notre Dame
The weekend got even better for the Irish when the women’s game ended in a second victory for Notre Dame — this time more expected. The Indiana school is known for having a higher-ranking women’s basketball team than its men’s team, in large part due to senior guard Hannah Hidalgo, who is expected to be a top lottery pick in the 2027 WNBA draft. Hidalgo contributed 32 of Notre Dame’s 99 points against Villanova.
Notre Dame fans celebrated their second win of the night with cheers as the buzzer sounded, the culmination of a victory that was more than just a basketball win: Opening the college basketball season with a triumph in the storied city of Rome, just kilometers away from Pope Leo, was a once-in-a-lifetime feeling for the excited Notre Dame teams, fans, and students present.
Hidalgo’s parents, Tamara and Orlando Hidalgo, were thrilled with Notre Dame’s season opener win. And while watching their daughter play will always be reason enough for them to travel around the world, Tamara commented that their experience in Rome has been “spectacular” for more reasons than basketball.
“I was actually taken to the prison where Paul was held,” she said. “For me, it was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime [experience]. It really touched my heart to know that I’m standing right above where he wrote the Book of Timothy. So I’ve had a phenomenal experience.”
For Villanova, the evening certainly held a fair share of disappointment from the basketball loss. But despite inevitable regret at the games’ outcome, Wildcat fans won’t be going home despondent.
Linda Hodgson, a Villanova alumna who was at the game with her daughter, shared her mixed feelings after the game: “[I’m] very disappointed. What else can I say? We were really expecting a Villanova win, especially with the pope’s blessing,” she said.
But, Hodgson added, “it was great meeting the pope. It was fun walking around Rome and seeing all the landmarks and coming to the basketball game. It was a great trip.”
For Hodgson and the other Villanova fans, the Eternal City Tip-Off loss may have been disappointing, but the weekend remained an amazing opportunity to be present in Rome for a historic visit to the Vatican, a competitive matchup with another Catholic school, and a chance to experience the excitement of basketball in the context of the faith.
In a statement to EWTN News before the game, Notre Dame president Father Robert Dowd, CSC, described the weekend as an expression of “shared commitment” to Catholic higher education between the universities, saying: “[W]e are united in our deep devotion to our faith and appreciation for the power of sport to elevate the human spirit.”
His hope that the matchup would deepen “a spirit of joy and communion” between Notre Dame and Villanova echoed the words of Pope Leo, who said on Saturday that “the members of two teams, even when they have a competitive rivalry, are certainly not enemies” and encouraged the “fraternity, solidarity, and peace” that athletics can promote.
And while Notre Dame has the scoreboard as proof of its victory, the moments of fraternity, joyful competition, and prayer shared between both schools during the Eternal City Tip-Off weekend made the season opener a historical moment for Notre Dame and Villanova alike.
Theology of the body meets psychology: Catholics seek healing through JPII’s personalism
In a culture marked by rising rates of anxiety and a loss of meaning, a growing number of Catholics are seeking ways to promote human flourishing by integrating the best in psychological science with the personalist philosophy of St. John Paul II.
Catholics gathered at the CatholicPsych Institute’s Summit of Integration from Oct. 20–23 in Dallas. Its founder, Greg Bottaro, whose work centers on the integration of St. John Paul II’s teachings on the meaning and purpose of the body with the practice of psychology, told attendees that “St. John Paul II has written more for psychologists than any other psychologist in the last 150 years.”
“John Paul II didn’t use the language of psychology in his theology of the body, but everything he talked about was relatable to the field,” Bottaro told EWTN News. “Faith, reason, and science all come together in his work.”
The theology of the body teaches that the human person is a unity of body and soul, created male and female in the image of God and called to communion through the sincere gift of self. The body has a “nuptial” or spousal meaning: It expresses the person and is ordered toward loving self-gift, which is fully realized either in the permanent, exclusive, and life-giving union of marriage or in the celibate gift of self for the kingdom.
Speakers at the conference, which was timed to coincide with St. John Paul II’s feast day on Oct. 22, tied the saint’s writings to their own work and personal lives.
A love that is ‘stronger than death’
Christopher West, a Catholic author and educator who specializes in the theology of the body, gave an address called “My Interior Journey with St. John Paul II.”
West said the saint’s writings helped him make sense of a yearning that began when he was a child, a yearning that he explained was for a love that would never end.
He described this yearning as beginning with an innocent crush on a girl in his third grade class, but as he grew up, it led him to a disordered view of sexuality and the body: “I wanted a beauty; I wanted a joy; I wanted happiness that lasts forever, that does not die.”
“The Church calls this yearning eros,” the Greek word for romantic love, he said. “Eros cries out for a love that is ‘stronger than death,’” he continued, quoting the Song of Songs in the Old Testament.
“Christianity is an invitation to a wedding feast that corresponds to that cry of the heart,” he said.
St. John Paul II taught that “Christianity is not redemption from the body and sexuality. It is the redemption of the body and sexuality. Christ came into the world, not to condemn those whose eros is distorted, but to untwist it.”
“The most disastrous mistake of Christians is to view sexuality as trash and throw it away rather than redeem it,” he continued. “We have three choices with eros: Repress it, aim it at finite pleasure, or, by the grace of God, learn how to aim our desire for the infinite toward the infinite.”
He said he sees St. John Paul II not primarily as a theologian but as a spiritual father whose writings helped him confront his own fear of death.
“This boundless demand of eros expresses the basic problem of human existence: The heart demands infinity but cannot grant it. It claims eternity but is bound by death,” West continued. “Our deepest fear is staring into our own death.”
“John Paul II truly fathered me,” West said. “This is the gift of this man in my life: He has helped me face my deepest fear and gave me courage.”
West said he needed that courage to confront difficulties that fear caused in his 31-year marriage to his wife, Wendy, who sat in the front row as he spoke.
He said he had discovered “deep, unconscious wounds of rejection” he’d received from his brother during his childhood but that ultimately came from a fear of death that led him to “rejecting the true heart of my wife.”
“When I have caused you so much sorrow and suffering, it’s because I wanted you to do something you couldnʼt possibly do for me, which is to take away my fear of death,” he said. “I wanted you to take that existential threat away.”
“And weʼre aging, haven’t you noticed?” he asked her, laughing. “Weʼre in our late 50s, and all the gray hair is a reminder that weʼre dying; weʼre all on this conveyor belt, and weʼre all gonna fall off.”
An ‘inheritance to life’
In his keynote, Bottaro repeatedly returned to the idea that Christians receive an “inheritance to life” from God rather than an inheritance of fear and death.
“The inheritance of life, the legacy of life, of the Resurrection is the answer to the deepest fear in the human heart: death,” he said, pointing to St. John Paul II’s admonition to “‘Be not afraid!’”
Bottaro also described the saint as a spiritual father who shaped his life.
He spoke of a visit to Poland during a time he was struggling with discouragement in his work. He was sitting at the kitchen table where a young Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) had discovered his father dead. As Bottaro sat, he said he felt “John Paul II just put his arms around me,” after which he was able to return to his professional efforts with a renewed purpose.
He spent the next five years writing “The Personalist Cure,” a book that integrates the saint’s theological teachings with psychology. It was released during the conference, on St. John Paul II’s feast day.
Bottaro said the book is a manual for how to understand healing and mental health through a Catholic lens and is intended for anybody studying mental health or human formation.
Michelle Gardiner, a mother of four who attended the conference, told EWTN News the summit “surrounded me with the reality John Paul II gave his life to: Authentic healing begins with reverencing and protecting the inviolable gift of myself and every other human person.”
“We inadvertently turn away from God, the supreme lover who created us for delight, when we reject the gift because of interpersonal wounding,” she said. “John Paul II knew this: Authentic human flourishing requires receiving and protecting the inviolable gift of the human person.”
EWTN News explains: What’s the difference between canon law and sharia law?
Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed generated controversy in August of this year when he made a pointed comparison to Islamic sharia law and Catholic canon law.
El-Sayed was responding to a question from Fox News host Jesse Watters about 2022 remarks in which El-Sayed appeared to equate opposition to sharia law with “white supremacy.” The Senate candidate said he wishes to “practice my faith as I choose.”
“Nobody is trying to push sharia law on anyone else,” he said. “Just like I hope nobody is trying to push canon law on anybody else, because we live in America, where you should have the freedom of your religion.”
El-Sayed brought the comparison up again during a campaign town hall in Muskegon, Michigan, telling a voter that the Constitution protects the right to live by canon law while barring anyone from enforcing it on others.
The remarks have generated controversy for El-Sayed’s apparent equation of sharia law to canon law — two disparate forms of socio-ecclesial governance that help govern the lives of billions of religious adherents worldwide.
Sharia law vs. canon law
Sharia law, which governs Islamic religious practice along with family matters and financial transactions, also deals with aspects of political governance and public law, forming part or all of the political and legal systems in several Muslim-majority countries.
Canon law, on the other hand, regulates only the Catholic Church’s internal structure and functions, including rules about clergy, sacraments, and other ecclesiastical and administrative norms. It does not function as a civil or political legal code for the state or for non-Catholics, as sharia can for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
David Long, dean of the school of professional studies at The Catholic University of America and an assistant professor in the university’s school of canon law, told EWTN News that canon law “governs an identifiable ecclesial community and orders the Church’s life and mission, including sacramental discipline and the exercise of ecclesiastical office.”
Canon law provides a framework for the Church to live out its identity and mission. Sharia, meanwhile — though it is often appended with the word “law” — actually has a broader scope than religious governance, Long said. It directs “life according to God’s will,” including both worship and moral conduct.
Sharia law is applied in various ways in numerous countries throughout the world through the principle of “fiqh” — Islamic jurisprudence that interprets sharia and puts it into practice. It is seen particularly in the Middle East and Africa, though no local or state government in the U.S. practices it.
There is “no single worldwide Islamic legislator,” Long said, and thus there is no “single, universally promulgated code” that can be described as a comprehensive sharia.
Both canon law and sharia can have civil implications, the professor said, noting that Catholic canon law affects issues that cross with civil law, such as marriage contracts.
He pointed to a 2020 Maryland court case, meanwhile, which found that a financial stipulation in an Islamic marriage contract could be enforced, though only if it “satisfied secular contract principles.”
Civil courts in such cases “can recognize legal arrangements made for religious reasons without deciding whether a religion’s teachings are true or binding on the public.”
He noted that Muslims “have the same right as other citizens to bring religious convictions into public debates” and that a law cannot be ruled unconstitutional simply because it happens to agree with a religious teaching.
He acknowledged the appropriateness of being concerned if “a proposal under sharia uses governmental authority to compel religious observance or deny equal citizenship.” But he noted that such concerns should apply equally to all religions.
“I would … resist both blanket reassurance and blanket suspicion when it comes to applying religious-law elements in political discourse, including sharia,” Long said. “Specific proposals deserve scrutiny on their merits.”
“A religious population deserves neither a presumption of political innocence for everything done in its name nor a presumption of collective intent to impose its faith,” he said.
Peru loses second bishop in 2 days as Pope Leo’s visit nears
Bishop Jorge Pedro Carrión Pavlich of Puno, Peru, died at age 76, just two days after the death of Archbishop Richard Daniel Alarcón Urrutia of Cusco, Peru, and less than two weeks before Pope Leo XIV arrives in the country.
His death was announced Sunday, Nov. 1, during a Mass at the Shrine of the Virgin of Candelaria in Puno. He had been hospitalized at a clinic in Lima.
The Peruvian bishops' conference issued a statement of condolence shortly afterward. “We join in prayer with the Church of Puno, his family and the entire Catholic community, thanking God for his life and his dedication to the service of the Church,” the bishops said, asking prayers for his eternal rest and for the consolation of his family.
Alarcón, 74, died Friday, Oct. 30, after a battle with cancer. He had been helping prepare for the popeʼs stop in Cusco on Nov. 15, and Pope Leo expressed sorrow at his death. Meanwhile, Leo, who served for two decades in Peru as a missionary and later as bishop of Chiclayo, will visit the country Nov. 11–16, according to the published schedule. Puno is not on the itinerary.
5 decades of service
Carrión was born in Tarma in Peruʼs central Andes. The Archdiocese of Lima noted that he had marked 50 years as a priest and more than 26 years as a bishop.
Pope John Paul II named him a bishop in May 2000, and he went on to lead the Diocese of Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, for more than 24 years. Before that, he served as assistant secretary of the Peruvian bishops' conference.
Funeral arrangements
A wake was held Nov. 1 at the Archdiocesan Shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Santiago de Surco, Lima. The vigil continues Nov. 2 in Puno, where his funeral Mass will be celebrated Nov. 3.
He will be buried Nov. 4 in the cemetery in his hometown of Tarma.
This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Pope Leo XIV: ‘Holiness is not a privilege reserved for a few’
Pope Leo XIV said Sunday that holiness is a calling for everyone, not an achievement reserved for a select group, as he reflected on the Solemnity of All Saints during his Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square.
“The Solemnity of All Saints, which we celebrate today, invites us to share in the joy of that countless family of men and women who, following the Lord Jesus, have made their lives a gift to God and to their neighbors,” the pope said.
Quoting Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Spe Salvi, Leo said the saints, along their different paths to holiness, “have longed for ‘the ocean of infinite love.’”
The pope noted that the Church celebrates not only canonized saints on Nov. 1 but also “the countless others who have not been formally recognized but are known to God.”
“It is indeed true that it is impossible to count this multitude of brothers and sisters, and not just in numerical terms,” he said. “Holiness, in fact, cannot be reduced to any calculation, for such is the good that all the saints have spread around them in the world.”
Leo said the saints brought forth “actions and choices of love that transcend the calculations of greed and the arrogance of evil, which at times seems to prevail.”
“The saints are the most beautiful and powerful sign of the Kingdom of God that is coming — or rather, as Jesus teaches us, is already among us,” he said.
The pope emphasized that the multitude of saints includes people “from the most diverse backgrounds, cultures and walks of life.”
“Holiness is not a privilege reserved for a few, but a universal vocation that speaks to each of us where we live,” Leo said.
“This is the hope-filled message of today’s feast: God sees the good that we do not see, knows stories that we do not know and reaches hearts to which we have no access.”
He entrusted the faithful to the Blessed Virgin Mary, praying that she would accompany them “along the path to holiness, so that we may never grow weary of fostering peace, both in the most important situations and in the ordinary circumstances of everyday life.”
Pope recalls newly beatified Georgia martyrs
After the Angelus, Leo recalled the beatification the previous day in Savannah, Georgia, of Pedro de Corpa and four companions, Franciscan friars killed in odium fidei, or “in hatred of the faith,” in 1597.
“Originally from Spain, they responded generously to the Lordʼs call to evangelize the peoples of the Americas, even to the point of giving their lives,” the pope said. “Let us invoke the intercession of these martyrs for all missionaries of the Gospel.”
Leo also spoke about a recent humanitarian operation to assist civilians in Oleshky, expressing hope that cooperation between the parties involved would lead to further steps toward peace.
“I hope that the cooperation between the parties, which made this necessary humanitarian act possible, will strengthen the desire for dialogue and lead to new concrete peace initiatives,” he said.
The pope then highlighted the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, calling the first Olympic event held on the African continent “a sign of hope coming from the world of sport.”
He also noted that the Friars Minor will hold a Mission with the Poor in Rome from Nov. 8–15.
“I congratulate the sons of Saint Francis who, through this initiative, are placing the poor at the center, as the Lord Jesus did and as Saint Francis of Assisi did,” Leo said.
Finally, ahead of the Nov. 2 Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, the pope announced that he would celebrate Mass at Rome’s Verano Cemetery.
“During these days, let us feel united in the Communion of Saints with the immense family of our brothers and sisters who have gone before us on our earthly pilgrimage,” he said, “and let us pray for the departed, especially those whom no one remembers.”
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Africa surpasses Europe in Catholic population; Church leaders highlight missionary role
NAIROBI, Kenya — Catholic leaders in Africa have described the Church’s growth there as an opportunity to share its faith, vocations, and missionary experience with the universal Church while continuing to receive gifts from other local Churches.
According to the latest statistics published by Agenzia Fides, Africa’s Catholic population has now surpassed Europe’s, rising to 288.3 million compared with Europe’s 287.2 million. Africa now has the second-largest Catholic population, after the Americas, which the organization counts as one region.
The data Fides used comes from the Church’s Book of Statistics, which is updated yearly. The latest edition includes data through Dec. 31, 2024.
In responses shared with ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, Catholic leaders in Africa pointed to families, catechists, pastoral presence, and the witness of missionaries among factors they believe have contributed to the growth.
Catholics in the world numbered 1.4 billion, with an overall increase of 15.8 million Catholics compared with the previous year. As in previous years, increases were registered above all in Africa and in the Americas, followed by Asia, Europe, and Oceania.
The African continent recorded the largest increase in Catholics, adding 7.58 million compared with an increase of 6.99 million in the Americas. Africa gained 1,676 priests, the largest continental increase, compared with a worldwide net increase of 425 priests.
According to the Fides report, Africa was the only continent to register growth in seminarians, adding 786, while the global total declined by 2,891.
Sharing the gift of faith
For Bishop Edward Hiiboro Kussala of South Sudan’s Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, the findings are a reason for gratitude and renewed missionary responsibility.
“Having received the gift of faith through the missionary witness of others, we are now blessed to share that gift with the universal Church,” Hiiboro said.
As bishop of Tombura-Yambio since 2008, Hiiboro also serves as president of the Integral Human Development Commission of the Sudan and South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference. He said that growth of faith is not a competition.
“Africa is not competing with any continent in the growth of faith. We are part of one universal Church, united in Christ and enriched by the gifts of different peoples and cultures,” he said.
Father Vincent Simba, rector of Nairobi-based St. Thomas Aquinas Senior Seminary, said the increase in Catholics and priests offers hope for Africa and the universal Church.
Simba expressed hope that Africa would have opportunities to send missionaries to places from which the continent received the Christian faith.
Bishop Joseph Kacou Aka of Ivory Coast’s Diocese of Yamoussoukro said the figures are an invitation to deepen communion among local Churches.
“Africa is called to share its gifts: its vocations, its community experience, its theological reflection, and its witness of faith,” he said. “But mission remains a fraternal exchange in which each Church both gives and receives.”
Aka, who was consecrated bishop in 2023, said pastoral action in his diocese is guided by the theme “Autonomous and Missionary Church, Communion of Communities.”
Families, communities, and pastoral presence
In his response to ACI Africa, Hiiboro pointed to family bonds, community life, and openness to God as among the conditions he believes have helped the growth of Christian faith in Africa, alongside the work of missionaries, catechists, priests, women and men religious, and laypeople.
In Nigeria, Bishop Gerald Mamman Musa of the Diocese of Katsina identified the continent’s youthful population, family life, liturgies, and the work of Catholic institutions among factors contributing to growth.
“In Nigeria, parish communities, Catholic schools, hospitals, and lay movements help transmit the faith across generations,” Musa said.
Musa, who also chairs the Communications Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), said his diocese had seen its number of seminarians rise from about 21 in 2023 to more than 40 in 2026.
He cautioned that “demographic growth alone does not explain conversion.”
Father George Omondi, a Kenyan-born member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, commonly known as the Spiritans, pointed to the accessibility of pastoral services.
Omondi, who previously served as vice provincial superior and councilor for formation in the Spiritans’ Kenya and South Sudan Province, recalled seeing an increase in parishes in Kenyan Catholic dioceses, bringing services closer to the faithful.
Omondi said during his parish ministry he also observed adult baptisms and received converts from other churches into the Catholic Church.
In his own response, Aka cautioned against assigning a single cause to the growth. The statistics, he said, “describe a development without, by themselves, establishing its causes,” and do not determine the respective contributions of family transmission, adult baptisms, and demographic factors.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, and has been adapted by EWTN News.
Wisconsin pilgrims visit Belgium to explore roots of Our Lady of Champion visionary
A group of 50 people from the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, recently walked in the footsteps of Servant of God Adele Brice during a 10-day pilgrimage to Belgium where they visited locations associated with the Marian visionary at the center of the story behind the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion — the only approved Marian apparition site in the United States.
Led by Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, the group visited the cities of Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Dion-le-Val, and Leuven from Oct. 10–20 on the first-of-its-kind pilgrimage.
Among the stops were the Church of Our Lady, home to The Madonna of Bruges sculpture created by Michelangelo; the Basilica of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel, Belgium’s most visited Marian shrine; the tomb of St. Damien of Molokai, a Belgian priest known for his service to the leper community on the island of Molokai in Hawaii; the Catholic University of Leuven, the oldest Catholic university in the world; and several locations associated with Brice, including her hometown of Dion-le-Val, her home parish, the site of her confirmation, and the port where Brice and her family embarked for New York in 1855.
In an interview with EWTN News, Ricken described the pilgrimage for those who took part as a “discovering of roots.”
He explained that most of the pilgrims were from Door County in Wisconsin, which is one of the largest Belgian communities in the United States.
“Thereʼs a Belgian heritage center here and lots of deep connections, and they havenʼt forgotten those,” he shared. “And they just loved Adele from the time she came.”
With this in mind, and since Brice’s cause for canonization was officially opened in February, Ricken and others involved with the pilgrimage thought it could serve as a “moment of connecting with her [Brice’s] roots so that we can understand her better” as well as give the pilgrims in attendance “a chance to reconnect” with their Belgian roots.
Ricken recalled that one of the most impactful stops on the pilgrimage was the Mass celebrated at Brice’s home parish, the Church of St. Martin in Dion-le-Val. This small parish typically has roughly 20 people in attendance — as Catholicism in Belgium is currently at a low point, Ricken explained — but for this Mass, 250 people crammed into the space to celebrate the special occasion.
“I think it gave them a whole new sense of pride in their own history over there. So it was a renewal for them. You could see that. The people were so thrilled to have us,” he shared.
After the Mass — which was concelebrated by Ricken, several other priests from the Diocese of Green Bay who were on the pilgrimage, and local Belgian priests — a reception was held. Despite having a language barrier, Ricken said everyone was still able to communicate and many of the local Belgians recognized the family last names of the American pilgrims and found family connections. He shared that one of his priests from the diocese found a relative of his that he “never knew existed before.”
“It was just beautiful and itʼs going to take quite a while to unpack all of that and understand exactly what happened, but it was deeply enriching for everybody, including me,” he said.
The Church of St. Martin was also the recipient of the Our Lady of Champion Adele Brice icon done by Father Paul Czerwonka from the Diocese of La Crosse in Wisconsin. The icon depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary appearing to Brice and has two angels holding a banner with the message the Blessed Mother gave Brice: “I am the Queen of Heaven … Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation. Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the cross, and how to approach the sacraments. That is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing, I will help you.”
The icon is 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide and took two months to complete.
Ricken said one moment that was very personal for him during the pilgrimage was when the group visited the Catholic University of Leuven. The bishop received his graduate degree in sacred theology and completed his seminary formation at this university in 1980. While the seminary building is now used for student housing, the chapel from the seminary is still in use.
“We were able to arrange for an anointing service of the pilgrims … there in the seminary chapel where I attended Mass every day as a student and loved it so much,” he shared. “And I was able to lead the anointing service. And many people took advantage of that … not everybody, but many did, and it was so beautiful that right there in the former seminary chapel to be able to take care of my own people from here who went on that pilgrimage. That was very touching.”
Reflecting on the pilgrimage as a whole, Ricken said he believes “there will be a lot of answered prayers” through Brice’s intercession.
Ricken said he hopes those who went “see all of their instincts and their love of their culture and language as something thatʼs still alive, still vibrant in certain places, and that the shrine is their connection with home.”
“Theyʼve always felt that, but now they actually saw it themselves. They were able to go to her hometown and experience that connection,” he added.
“And my hope is that theyʼll continue to volunteer and do all the beautiful things they do and have even more commitment to it and be able to identify the work of grace and the Holy Spirit in everything thatʼs happening today in and around the shrine through Adele [Brice] and through the Blessed Mother.”
America’s first martyrs for marriage: The Georgia Martyrs declared ‘blessed’
SAVANNAH – More than 400 years ago, Friars Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodríguez, Miguel de Aňon, Antonio de Badajoz, and Francisco de Veráscola surrendered their lives standing for the sanctity of marriage.
“We do well to lovingly speak their names, for they are holy members of the family of God,” said Cardinal Frank Leo of Toronto while declaring them “blessed” on Oct. 31 in Savannah.
It was a milestone for the Catholic Church in America: The Georgia Martyrs are the first American martyrs for marriage and the first to be beatified in the southern U.S.
Approximately 9,000 people streamed through the doors of the Savannah Convention Center, breaking city attendance records for an indoor event. They traveled from all over Georgia, the U.S., and around the world, arriving by bus, car, and trolley. Some ferried across the Savannah River. Others flew, including priests and lay Catholics representing the hometowns of several friars.
María Isabel Inoriza De Villota, a 12th generation descendent of one of Friar Francisco’s brothers, came from Spain with her 16-year-old son, Imanol.
“Ever since I was a child, I have witnessed the deep devotion my parents held for Francisco,” she said. “We have always turned to him, seeking his protection and help.”
Her mother prayed “fervently” for the beatification, which is “a dream come true,” she said.
Father Pablo Migone, the vicar for mission advancement in the Savannah Diocese and a longtime promoter of the cause, said 2,000 attendees “tops” were projected. But registrations kept pouring in.
U.S. beatifications are rare. But it was more than that. The diocese has been educating the faithful about the martyrs for a decade. “The fruit and the story are resonating in people’s hearts and minds,” Migone said.
Until learning of the beatification, many residents of La Albuera, Spain, where Friar Antonio was baptized, hadn’t heard of him. Now the town square is being renamed in his honor.
“God is full of surprises,” said Father Antonio Jesús Marín Romo, the town’s parish priest. “This comes at a crucial moment when we were in need of a catalyst for the work we wish to begin in the parish.”
The Franciscans’ story began in the 16th century when they arrived from Spain. By 1595, they had established missions along the Georgia coast, evangelizing the Indigenous Guale people. Serving like Peace Corps volunteers, they succeeded where other orders had failed.
Two years later, however, faith clashed with local custom. A baptized convert in line for chiefdom insisted on a second wife. When the friars refused to compromise Christ’s teaching on marriage, a war party murdered the friars, mission by mission. A sixth friar, Francisco de Ávila, was tortured, but lived to tell the tale. The missions were eventually reestablished, and Catholicism thrived.
The bilingual service on Oct. 31 began with a procession down the runway-like aisle created from joining four exhibition spaces, the center’s largest configuration.
More than 200 clergy, including Franciscan Friars of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Cardinal Leo, 31 bishops and archbishops, over 100 deacons and seminarians, and the apostolic nuncio, were joined by nearly 200 members of the Knights of Columbus, the Knights of Malta, Knights (and Dames) of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Knights of Peter Claver. Seventy ciboria waited at the altar.
Cardinal Leo read the apostolic letter and declared the Georgia Martyrs “blessed,” by having “placed the saving truth of the Gospel before their own safety.”
Atlanta Archbishop Gregory Hartmayer and Archbishop Joan-Enric Vives i Sicilia, bishop emeritus of Urgell, who represented the Spanish Episcopal Conference, read English and Spanish translations of the apostolic letter, respectively.
The letter declared the martyrs’ feast day as Sept. 22, the octave day of Friar Pedro’s martyrdom.
Thunderous applause erupted at the unveiling of the official portrait of the martyrs, showing them in humble repose and bathed in golden light. Before and after the beatification, the crowd toured the adjacent Georgia Martyrs Museum and art exhibition.
By worldly standards, it might seem like the martyrs failed, Cardinal Leo said during his homily. “But it is not so.”
They succeeded by embracing “the call to holiness, which further led them to embrace the call to consecrated life, the call to the sacred priesthood, the call to missionary work, the call to evangelize, the call to share and defend the faith and, ultimately, the call to give their very life.”
But “how compelled are we” to “follow Jesus’ call to follow him?” he asked.
A holy life requires defending the truth and “always put[ting] Christ first,” he stated, even while striving for unity in the world. “Polarization is not from God.”
The martyrs also bore witness to “the Christian doctrine of marriage and held to that divine truth to the shedding of their own blood,” he said, stressing the sacred nature of the family “founded upon the covenantal, sacramental, indissoluble union of one man and one woman.”
In his first public audience after recent surgery, Pope Leo XIV said that protecting marriage and family “is more urgent than ever before.”
The beatification itself was “perfect timing,” said Christine Camp, who came from Atlanta with more than a dozen other Catholics who had just attended a three-day retreat to pray for restoration of their marriages.
Moms and dads with children had traveled from near and far. “It’s our pilgrimage,” said Theodora Ferrant, who came from Pensacola with her husband and two children.
“I truly believe through the intercession of Blessed Pedro de Corpa and four companions there will be greater respect for the dignity and character of holy matrimony,” Savannah Bishop Stephen Parkes said.
“May the witness of these holy men inspire fidelity between spouses called into the covenantal bond of holy matrimony and help create a renewed commitment to the growth of faith-filled families in the state of Georgia and beyond.”
The celebration will continue Nov. 1 with a Mass of thanksgiving at the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist.
New York archbishop joins religious sisters in suing state over assisted suicide law
New York Archbishop Ronald Hicks this week joined a lawsuit alongside several orders of religious sisters, suing to stop the state from forcing Catholics to adhere to its newly created suicide regime.
The archbishop added his name to a lawsuit that includes Rockville Centre Bishop John Barres, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, and the Little Sisters of the Poor. Hicks’s addition to the suit was announced by the religious liberty law firm Becket on Oct. 30.
The New York Archdiocese joins the suit after it was launched in July of this year by Catholic objectors to the state’s new suicide law. The Catholic plaintiffs in that suit argued that the state’s assisted suicide rules would force them to participate in the process of helping suicidal patients kill themselves, a violation of core Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life.
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, a federal court ordered that the state could not enforce the suicide rules against the Catholic objectors while the suit itself played out.
Hicks said on Oct. 30 that Catholics “are guided by the compassion of Jesus to serve those of every background who are in need of healing.”
“We refuse to allow New York to force us to harm the very ones we’ve been called to care for,” he said.
Hicks is the latest Catholic prelate to join the legal fight against assisted suicide in the U.S. A total of four bishops and dozens of religious sisters have sued the governments of New York and Illinois after the states enacted assisted suicide programs.
In addition to the New York ruling, the Catholic objectors in Illinois — which include the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Diocese of Springfield — have secured victories at federal court, with a judge ordering the state to hold off on enforcing suicide rules against them while the suits play out.
In New York, the Catholic healthcare ministry ArchCare also joined the lawsuit against the state. Among ArchCare’s facilities is Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, which offers hospice care for those with six months or less to live.
Becket describes the Calvary facility as “the only fully-accredited acute care hospital in the U.S. devoted exclusively to the palliative care of adult patients with life-limiting illnesses.”