Bishop Emeritus Frank Dewane, who led Diocese of Venice in Florida for nearly 20 years, dies at 76
Bishop Emeritus Frank Dewane, who led the Diocese of Venice in Florida for nearly two decades until his retirement earlier this year, died on Oct. 7 at 76 years old.
His death was confirmed in a news release by current Bishop Emilio Biosca Agüero, OFM Cap, who was appointed to that role in May.
“It is with profound sadness, yet with faith in the promise of the Resurrection, that I announce the passing of the Most Reverend Frank J. Dewane, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Venice in Florida,” Agüero said.
Dewane died at 3 a.m. at Sarasota Memorial Hospital “surrounded by close family and friends,” the prelate said. A cause of death was not immediately given.
Born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on March 9, 1950, Dewane was ordained in that diocese on July 16, 1988. Prior to his ordination he worked for NBC in Moscow and also worked at a subsidiary for Pepsi in New York.
Among his roles prior to his consecration as bishop, Dewane served as a member of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York and as the undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
He was named a coadjutor bishop of the Venice Diocese in 2006 by then-Pope Benedict XVI and was ultimately installed as bishop there on Jan. 19, 2007. He retired from that role on May 13 after nearly 20 years of service there.
Among his other roles in the U.S. Church were chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ domestic justice committee as well as on the bishops’ ad hoc Committee Against Racism.
Near the end of his tenure, in 2025, he spoke out against what he described as the “corrosive” rhetoric of U.S. federal officials who were intending to build a detention facility in the Everglades meant to house immigrants in the country illegally.
“Decency requires that we remember individuals being detained are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters of distressed relatives,” the bishop said at the time.
Holy See presses development, poverty, women’s issues at UN
The Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N. raised global development, poverty, and women’s equality as topics of concern during the 81st General Assembly.
Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis, the Holy See’s apostolic nuncio to the U.N., called for “true equality” for women, and for global economic and technological advances to prioritize the human person and the common good during remarks delivered at the Oct. 6 session.
El-Kassis, who was appointed to the position in July, spoke during the U.N.’s Third Committee, which focuses on social, humanitarian, and cultural issues, as well as the Second Committee, which focuses on economic and financial issues.
Drawing from Pope Leo XIV’s statement that “development is truly human when it places people at the center instead of the accumulation of wealth,” El-Kassis noted that eradicating poverty must come with the development of a system that does not treat the poor “merely as passive recipients of assistance.”
“Instead, they should be active participants and protagonists in the measures and programs designed to help them in their own lives,” he said. “To achieve the objectives of poverty eradication, full employment and decent work, and social integration, as set out in Copenhagen and reaffirmed in Doha, will require sustained cooperation, creativity and a renewed commitment to a political, economic, ethical and spiritual vision for social development based on human dignity.”
During another session on sustainable development and global economic change, El-Kassis called for the world’s economy to embrace “fairer and more inclusive international financial architecture.”
“The circumstances of a person’s birth should not determine the respect for one’s inherent God-given dignity or the opportunities an individual is able to access,” he said. “Similarly, the economic circumstances of a country should not limit its ability to meaningfully participate decisions that shape its development.”
El-Kassis similarly quoted Leo’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas when speaking about women and emphasized that “equality for women cannot be achieved as long as violence against women remains widespread.” The Holy See’s U.N. representative further decried human trafficking and said other technological and medical developments have enabled forms of exploitation, including surrogacy.
The Holy See reiterated its opposition to surrogacy, arguing that it treats gestation as “a negotiable service,” which violates the dignity of both the child and the mother.
Canada won’t expand assisted suicide for those suffering from mental illness, government says
The Canadian government will not expand its broadly popular assisted suicide program for individuals suffering solely from a mental illness, Minister of Justice Sean Fraser said on Oct. 7.
The announcement brings an end to several years of debate and speculation regarding whether the country would allow doctors to help kill individuals who are suffering from mental health issues but who are not terminally or seriously ill.
Fraser told media at the Canadian House of Commons on Oct. 7 that the country would not move forward with the proposed expansion.
“While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time,” he told media.
Euthanasia has become a leading cause of death in Canada since it was legalized roughly a decade ago. About 100,000 Canadians have died by the country’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) program since 2016.
The country’s euthanasia program is one of the most permissive in the world. In 2023 euthanasia accounted for roughly 1 out of every 20 deaths there.
The MAID program is nominally limited to those suffering from what the government describes as a “grievous and irremediable medical condition,” though the condition need not be fatal or terminal.
The government had previously debated expanding the program to those suffering from mental health issues, though postponed the question in 2024 after a parliamentary report said the nation was “not ready” for the expansion.
Fraser said on Wednesday that upcoming legislation would indefinitely extend the ban on mental health-related euthanasia.
A 2025 report from Cardus Health found that vulnerable demographics were obtaining suicide assistance at disproportionately high rates in Canada. Among those groups were individuals suffering from mental illness.
Assisted suicide has expanded at the regional level in the country. In 2024, for instance, the provincial government of Quebec said it would begin allowing assisted suicide in the form of “advance requests,” where individuals can be euthanized at a time when they are unable to give consent so long as they agreed to the procedure at some point in the past.
In 2024, meanwhile, a watchdog report found that hundreds of violations of the country’s euthanasia rules had gone unreported to law enforcement.
Pope Leo XIV urges bishops to show courage in responding to struggling families
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday urged bishops from around the world gathered at the Vatican for a meeting on the family to face with “courage” the challenge of learning from and responding to families marked by hardship and “apparent failure.”
“The wisdom of the people of God reaches us through our common faith, which enlightens all families, including situations marked by difficulties, loneliness, and at times even apparent failure,” the pope said in his opening address to the gathering, being held in the Paul VI Audience Hall and scheduled to conclude Oct. 14.
The closed-door assembly, which is not open to journalists, is expected to produce a synthesis document without doctrinal authority that will later be presented to the pope.
The meeting is part of the synodal evaluation assemblies proposed at the conclusion of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality process.
Ten years after the two synods on the family and the widespread debate sparked by Amoris Laetitia, 154 bishops and cardinals, 53 priests and lay faithful, and 11 invited families began a series of meetings Wednesday aimed at assessing the current situation and evaluating the reception of Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation on the family.
The document generated significant debate after its publication because it opened the possibility, in certain cases, for some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist.
The pope made no direct reference to that issue during his address, which he delivered in English following a time of prayer.
Leo XIV said the lives of families pose to the Church “questions that deserve to be faced with courage” and highlighted several situations that concern him.
“In many contexts, a growing distance has emerged between the ways in which sex and intimacy are lived and the Christian vision of marriage,” he said.
“Young people continue to long for love, fidelity, and belonging, yet many find it difficult to embrace how such a vision of love can take shape in their own lives or to believe that a lifelong commitment is the condition for reaching what they desire,” he continued.
“Economic insecurity, migration, violence, loneliness, and other forms of emotional fragility also shape the choices people make and the possibilities they can imagine for their future,” he added.
‘What are people truly seeking?’
Focusing on contemporary challenges, the pope encouraged bishops to listen to families and stressed that the Church still has much to learn from them.
In that context, he posed a series of questions that he said should accompany the meetingʼs work, which is being conducted according to the synodal method and conceived as a space for listening and discernment.
“What are people truly seeking beneath these cultural changes? What do their joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties reveal to us? Where do our pastoral language and practices succeed in opening a path, and where do they fail to touch people’s hearts or assist their efforts to do what is good? What is the lived experience of families teaching us — an experience from which we have not yet fully learned? What can we offer as formation for healthy and holy family life? In particular, what can we learn from parents as they seek to accompany their children and young people in such contexts?”
‘Fragility deserves special attention’
The Holy Father also emphasized that “fragility deserves special attention” because it can “profoundly shape the way people see themselves, their future, and even their relationship with God and with the Church.”
“We all know the gap between the good we desire and what we are able to live. We need grace, forgiveness, and new beginnings to accomplish God’s will, and we learn that fidelity is itself a grace to be received and a path to be gradually renewed, often through trial,” he said.
He added that recognizing this “shared challenge” should shape the way members of the Church accompany families. He then posed additional questions to participants.
“What kind of Church, then, do people encounter precisely when they are most fragile? Do our communities help them discover that they still have a place, a responsibility, and gifts to offer? Can the truth we proclaim be encountered through the patience, closeness, and mercy of our pastoral presence? How can we announce to them the fullness of the Gospel’s teaching about the family?”
The pope urged participants to give these questions the attention they deserve.
“The Holy Spirit often speaks through the very situations that challenge us and enlightens us that we may discover how God’s mercy and the salvific grace of Christ can reach our families today, particularly in their weakness and resilience, in their hopes and disappointments, in their longing for communion and their search for meaning,” he said.
In the final portion of his address, Leo XIV called for the meeting’s work to unfold in a spirit of authentic “evangelical freedom” and encouraged participants to share honestly both the joys and challenges experienced in their local Churches.
Confidentiality requested
The pope also underscored the importance of prayer during the gathering and expressed hope that the meeting would help develop a shared assessment of the past decade of family ministry in the Church.
Finally, he asked all participants to exercise “discretion” and preserve “the confidentiality that this time of listening and discernment requires.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
‘Amoris Laetitia’ is consistent with Church teaching, sister tells pope and bishops
VATICAN CITY — Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation on the family, is consistent with the Church teaching and practice that came before it, Sister Helen Alford, OP, said at the opening of a Vatican meeting about the papal document on Wednesday.
Like an earlier document on the family by St. John Paul II, Amoris Laetitia was an innovative response to the challenge of following the moral law “when social situations are turbulent and changing quickly,” Alford said.
Amoris Laetitia sparked intense debate following its publication in 2016, especially after the bishops of the Buenos Aires Pastoral Region interpreted it as allowing, following a process of accompanied pastoral discernment, access to the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist for some Catholics who are divorced and civilly remarried “when a person judges that he or she would fall into a further fault by harming the children of the new union.”
In 2023, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith confirmed that this interpretation forms part of the authentic magisterium after being incorporated into the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the Holy See’s official bulletin.
Earlier this year, Pope Leo called the presidents of bishops’ conferences and heads of Eastern Churches, together with some married couples and theological experts, to spend a week at the Vatican in “synodal discernment” on families and the challenges they face today, including “abandonment, separation, and divorce,” in the light of Amoris Laetitia.
The ‘law of gradualness’
Alford’s address on the first day of the Oct. 7–14 meeting of bishops followed an opening prayer and a speech by Pope Leo XIV, who also said there is continuity in the teaching on marriage from Pope John Paul I through Pope Francis.
Like Leo, Alford, too, connected the two recent apostolic exhortations on the family: St. John Paul II’s Familiaris Consortio and Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia.
They both, she said, include the idea of the “law of gradualness.” In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis said John Paul II proposed it “in the knowledge that the human being ‘knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by different stages of growth.’”
Alford, quoting Pope Francis, said that “this is not a ‘gradualness of law’ but rather a gradualness in the prudential exercise of free acts on the part of subjects who are not in a position to understand, appreciate, or fully carry out the objective demands of the law. For the law is itself a gift of God which points out the way, a gift for everyone without exception; it can be followed with the help of grace.”
Both popes, the sister said, “are concerned to maintain the ideal, ‘law [which] is a gift of God which points out the way,’ as well as to recognize that many are not able to fully ‘understand, appreciate, or … carry out the objective demands of the law.”
She pointed out that 35 years separates Familiaris Consortio and Amoris Laetitia, during which time the lived situation of Christian families has seen many developments.
“As in other cases, such as in the social teaching of the Church, when social situations are turbulent and changing quickly, it can be necessary to find new ways of putting together both the ‘objective demands of the law’ (AL, 295) and the ‘law of gradualness’ (FC, 34) that many experience in trying to enter into it. Both Familiaris Consortio and Amoris Laetitia try to do this in their different historical contexts,” she said.
“Let us not forget,” the sister added, “that St. Thomas Aquinas and all the tradition that goes back to him would say that the law of God reaches its greatest expression in the new law, the law of the Gospel: the grace of Jesus.”
The purpose of the meeting
“In this meeting … we are called to proclaim the Gospel both of and to families,” the Dominican sister said. “It implies that the family is integral to the proclamation of the Gospel. The family both actively proclaims the Gospel and is in need of receiving the proclamation of the Gospel.”
Alford said the stress and brokenness often present in family life and marriage are an opportunity for greater holiness and trust in God. In order to unite their suffering with Christ’s, families need to hear the good news of the Gospel.
“Many families in situations of suffering and need could derive great help in facing their trials from hearing the good news proclaimed to them, receiving the new perspective the Gospel gives us on life and, thereby, the grace of the sacraments,” she said. “The very stresses, tensions, and brokenness in family life can be borne with more fortitude and with the hope that they can be worked through by uniting them to the sufferings of Christ.”
“As Pope Francis says, ‘In the darkest hours of a family’s life, union with Jesus in his abandonment can help avoid a breakup,’” she said, quoting from Amoris Laetitia No. 317.
“The beauty of the vocation to marriage is to be found through and with and in its fragility, not least because weakness can reawaken trust in God, and trust in God awakens the desire for holiness,” Alford said. “This, in a nutshell, is the Gospel of and to the family that we are talking about.”
Helping young people choose marriage
Alford’s talk also touched on the relational gaze of Jesus and its importance for recognizing and “seeing” the relationships that make up our lives, which are not visible like physical objects, yet, like the air we breathe, are really there.
She also spoke about the importance of helping young people enter into marriage with the proper outlook and tools to confront its difficulties.
“In the highly unstable world we live in today, if we are going to help young people have the courage to enter into marriage, and to give them the capacity to cope with the stresses they are going to meet, they will need to ‘see’ their relationships and think about their marriage and family life in a relational way,” she said.
“Social love, as a reflection of the Trinity, is what truly unifies the spiritual meaning of the family and its mission to others, for it makes present the kerygma in all its communal imperatives,” she added, quoting from Amoris Laetitia No. 324.
She encouraged the meeting’s participants to “search for ways to encourage young people to take up the great challenge of marriage and family life, embracing it in the full knowledge that they will experience great fragility as part of the process of realizing its beauty, and that in that fragility, they will find new and unexpected sources of God’s grace and experience a desire for holiness that is their very own.”
“Let us join Jesus in calling them to rise to the challenge, like Jesus called the Samaritan woman, of proclaiming the Gospel to others, precisely in the recognition of their fragility, so as to call others to join them in trusting in God’s grace and in experiencing the Christian desire for holiness,” Alford said.
Cause opens for beatification of Prayer and Life Workshops founder
Father Ignacio Larrañaga Orbegozo, a Capuchin priest and founder of the Prayer and Life Workshops, has formally begun his journey toward beatification and canonization. On Oct. 6, the Mexican Archdiocese of Guadalajara opened the diocesan phase of his cause.
During the ceremony held at the archdiocesan curia, the “nihil obstat” (“no objection”) from the Vaticanʼs Dicastery for the Causes of Saints was read, along with the decree from Guadalajara Cardinal Archbishop Francisco Robles Ortega, ordering the opening of the process.
The decree noted that the archdiocese has the authority to conduct this cause, as Larrañaga passed away within its territory in 2013. In accordance with the 2007 Vatican instruction Sanctorum Mater, which governs diocesan procedures for canonization causes, it is generally the responsibility of the bishop of the diocese where the servant of God died to conduct this stage of the process.
‘A tireless seeker of God’
Representing Robles Ortega, Auxiliary Bishop Juan Manuel Muñoz Curiel of Guadalajara also took part in the event. During his remarks, he remembered Larrañaga as a “tireless seeker of God.”
He further described him as a “mystic of our time who, through his warm words and profound contemplative experience, taught millions of people how to pray and live in intimacy with the Father.”
“He knew how to translate sublime Franciscan mysticism into a simple, accessible method so that the ordinary person could encounter the Lord face-to-face,” Muñoz Curiel stated.
However, he clarified that the aim of initiating Larrañaga’s cause is not to “raise a man to the altars to be admired from afar” but rather to remember that the call to holiness is a “vocation for every baptized person, as he himself used to teach us.”
Muñoz Curiel stated that life was remarkable not because Larrañaga “was free of difficulties but because, amid his weaknesses and the exhaustion of his tireless apostolic work, he knew how to entrust himself with total confidence to the hands of the Father.”
Inspired by this testimony, the prelate invited those present to “break free from spiritual mediocrity and courageously embrace our own vocation to holiness” and asked God that, “if it be for his greater glory and the good of the Church, he might deign to glorify his servant Ignacio.”
What happens next in the process?
As the first procedural step, Monsignor Óscar Sánchez Barba, the diocesan postulator for the cause, formally presented an initial list of 50 witnesses from 10 countries, as well as 47 books and booklets written by Larrañaga, along with other documents and publications regarding his life and work.
Through an established tribunal, the list of witnesses will be interviewed and the texts examined in order to subsequently produce a document known as the “positio,” which will be sent to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
If, following the study at the Vatican, it is determined that Larrañaga lived the Christian virtues to a heroic degree and the pope authorizes the corresponding decree, the servant of God will be considered “venerable.”
To subsequently advance toward beatification, the recognition of a miracle attributed to his intercession will be required.
Who was Ignacio Larrañaga?
Larrañaga was born on May 4, 1928, in the province of Guipúzcoa in Spain’s Basque Country.
In 1940, at the age of 12, he entered the Capuchin Seraphic Minor Seminary in Alsasua and later continued his formation in Fuenterrabía. He subsequently entered the Capuchin novitiate in Sangüesa, where he made his first religious profession in 1948.
The following year, he took the religious name Friar Jesús María de Azpeitia and continued his theological studies in Pamplona, where he was ordained a priest on Dec. 20, 1952.
It is said that “from the beginning of his priesthood, he felt a strong desire to dedicate himself to evangelization and, especially, to deepening his practice of contemplative prayer.”
This led him to travel to the Americas. He arrived in Chile in September 1959, where he “participated in popular missions, visited families, and preached in parishes.”
In 1955, he was appointed director of the Center for Franciscan and Pastoral Studies for Latin America (CEFEPAL). From there, he promoted Franciscan “Fellowship and Renewal Weeks,” initiatives that subsequently spread to various countries across Latin America and Europe.
From 1970 onward, Larrañaga was deeply engaged in work as a preacher and spiritual guide. He traveled to numerous countries in the Americas and Europe, conducting courses and gatherings focused on spirituality.
In 1974, he launched the “Encounters with the Experience of God” in Brazil, which were gatherings centered on silence, prayer, reflection, and listening to the word of God. These encounters began to spread widely.
In Santiago, Chile, in 1984, he developed Prayer and Life Workshops. These workshops were designed to teach the laity various methods of prayer and to help them deepen their Christian lives.
Over the years, the workshops spread across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In 2022, they received approval from the Holy See as an International Private Association of the Faithful of Pontifical Right.
During his final years, Larrañaga continued to travel, offering retreats and formation gatherings.
In October 2013, he traveled to Guadalajara, Mexico, to participate in one of these gatherings. He passed away in the early hours of Oct. 28 at the age of 85 after 60 years of priesthood.
He authored books such as “Sensing Your Hidden Presence: Toward Intimacy with God,” “From Suffering to Peace,” “The Silence of Mary,” and “Brother Francis of Assisi,” among others, addressing themes such as prayer, suffering, trust in God, conversion, and the pursuit of inner peace.
Regarding Larrañaga, Muñoz Curiel stated: “His work continues to convey that invitation to discover God as Father and to live out one’s faith through a deep, trusting, personal relationship with him.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
FOCUS names Jonathan Reyes as new CEO
FOCUS, one of the largest Catholic outreach and missionary organizations in the world, announced Oct. 7 that Jonathan Reyes will serve as the organization’s next chief executive officer, effective Nov. 16.
“Decades ago, I joined FOCUS at Curtis Martin’s invitation to support the important work of missionary formation. That invitation changed my life in ways I never could have imagined,” Reyes said in a press release. “Over the years, I have watched God use this apostolate to transform thousands of lives on college campuses and in parishes. That fruit is a sign of God’s blessing and a testimony to the faithful leaders and missionaries who have given themselves completely to the Great Commission. It is a privilege to serve alongside them, and I pray God will continue to bless FOCUS for generations to come.”
Curtis Martin, who founded FOCUS in 1998, announced on Dec. 13, 2025, that he would be stepping down from his role as CEO. He said he would continue to serve the student ministry group as its founder and as a board member.
“I have been blessed to know Jonathan for more than 25 years,” Martin said. “Jonathan has extensive leadership experience working with the Church and a deep desire to help others encounter Jesus Christ. Please join me in praying for Jonathan as he helps lead FOCUS and carries this mission forward.”
Reyes has devoted his career to the Catholic Church and returns to FOCUS after previously serving as the organization’s vice president of ministry and formation, where he helped shape the formation of missionaries who accompany college students.
His most recent position was that of senior vice president of communications for the Knights of Columbus. Before joining the Knights, Reyes served the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB), first as the executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development and later as the assistant general secretary for Integral Human Development.
In 2005, Reyes co-founded and served as the first president of the Augustine Institute, which is a private Catholic graduate school of theology. In 2011, he founded Christ in the City, a nonprofit and missionary formation program that focuses on street outreach to homeless individuals. He also previously taught history at Christendom College.
Archbishop Paul Coakley of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and president of the USCCB told EWTN News: “I welcome with great joy the appointment of Jonathan Reyes, Ph.D., as the new CEO of FOCUS. The friendship Jonathan shares with Curtis Martin gives this transition a special continuity.”
“Jonathan’s experience in various apostolates, most recently the world’s largest fraternal organization, the Knights of Columbus, has prepared him well to lead in this moment,” he added. “My brother bishops and I rely deeply upon lay movements such as FOCUS to help bring the Great Commission to fruition in every generation. May the Lord bless Jonathan and the entire FOCUS family as they continue forming missionary disciples for Christ and his Church.”
Monsignor James Shea, president of the University of Mary in North Dakota, told EWTN News: “Jonathan Reyes is an exemplary choice to lead FOCUS into its next chapter. He was there early on, understands the charism from the inside, and shares deeply in the vision that has animated Curtis Martin’s remarkable work from the start. I have been so grateful for his wisdom and friendship as a trustee of the University of Mary, where I have seen firsthand his rare combination of intellectual depth, apostolic zeal, sound judgment, and genuine humility.”
“Jonathan is a man of the Church, a gifted leader, and, above all, a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ,” he added. “He understands that the great strength of FOCUS has always been its capacity to awaken in young people a love for Christ and a desire to share that love with others. He will lead this extraordinary apostolate into a new season of growth and fruitfulness.”
Mother Mary Concepta, the superior general of the Sisters of Life, told EWTN News: “We have been privileged to collaborate with FOCUS for many years and are deeply grateful for their leadership and dynamic ministry of evangelization in the Church. We congratulate Jonathan Reyes in this new entrustment! We are praying for him and all of FOCUS as they continue this important work of leading young people to an encounter with Christ.”
“I’ve known and admired Jonathan Reyes for many years, both as a lay leader and a friend,” said Archbishop Emeritus Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia. “He’s a man of exceptional Christian character, intellect, apostolic energy, and professional skill. He knows the founder’s vision and the wonderful FOCUS staff and missionaries from long personal experience, and he’ll build on that to make the work of FOCUS even more fruitful in the years ahead. The FOCUS Board made exactly the right choice in a next-generation leader.”
Reyes succeeds interim CEO Tim Thoman, who has led FOCUS during the board’s national search since December 2025.
This story was updated at 4:01 p.m. ET on Oct. 7, 2026, with the statement from Mother Mary Concepta.
Pope Leo XIV receives relic of Blessed Fulton Sheen from Peoria Bishop Louis Tylka
Pope Leo XIV received a relic of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen from leaders of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, this month, marking a poignant moment involving the Catholic Church’s first American-born pope and one of the nation’s most iconic modern evangelists.
Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria, accompanied by Monsignor Jason Gray, executive director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, met with the Holy Father in a private audience Oct. 5.
The audience followed the long-awaited beatification of Sheen, a pioneer of Catholic radio and television whose cause for sainthood was championed by his home diocese in central Illinois. The encounter carried added significance given that both Pope Leo XIV and Blessed Fulton Sheen trace their roots to the state of Illinois.
Following the audience, Tylka highlighted the deep spiritual connection and Church tradition tied to the gift.
“It was a profound joy and privilege to meet with our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, and to present him with a relic of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen on behalf of the Diocese of Peoria and all those who have prayed for and supported Archbishop Sheen’s cause,” Tylka said.
“There is a beautiful tradition in the Catholic Church of presenting the Holy Father with the relics of the saints and blesseds, and this particular moment carried special meaning for me. Pope Leo XIV has spoken of Archbishop Sheen on several occasions and has expressed his appreciation for Archbishop Sheen’s extraordinary witness of faith, his ability to proclaim the Gospel through the means of communication available in his time, and his missionary heart. In the days surrounding the beatification, the Holy Father again pointed to Archbishop Sheen as an example of finding new ways to spread the Gospel.”
Gray underscored the historic resonance of placing the relic of the Illinois-born preacher into the hands of an American pope.
“I am deeply grateful for the Holy Father’s interest in Blessed Fulton Sheen and for his support that allowed us to celebrate this long-awaited beatification,” Gray said.
“To place a relic of this son of the Diocese of Peoria into the hands of the first American pope, both of whom are from Illinois, was an especially moving moment. My hope is that this relic will serve as a reminder of who Fulton Sheen was and of the mission he embraced so completely: to bring Jesus Christ to the world. The Holy Father’s own interest in Archbishop Sheen reminds us that his witness continues to speak to the Church today and challenges all of us to proclaim the Gospel with the same conviction and joy.”
The presentation of the relic stands as a lasting symbol of Blessed Fulton Sheen’s legacy as a master communicator, whose impact continues to resonate across the universal Church from his native Illinois to the Vatican.
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, and has been adapted by EWTN News.
Pope Leo XIV: We need more beauty in age of technology
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday urged patrons of the Vatican Museums to rediscover beauty in an era dominated by technology.
The pontiff held a private audience on Oct. 7 at the Vatican with the Louisiana chapter of the patrons during their pilgrimage to Rome. The Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, founded in 1983, is an international group of benefactors who fund the conservation and restoration of the Vatican’s art collections.
Leo, in his remarks, thanked them for their collaboration and support for the Vatican Museums and invited them to create spaces of beauty in a world where technology is often preferred.
“In an age dominated by technology, in which efficiency and profit often take precedence, it is so important that we continue to cultivate a spirit of contemplation and allow time and space for beauty,” Leo said.
He also added that fostering this attitude would “greatly help humanity, especially young people, not only to discover the ability of art to uplift and reveal the depths of the human spirit.”
“Ultimately,” Leo added, “contemplation presents a marvelous opportunity to encounter the God who is beauty, whom St. Augustine described as ever-ancient and ever-new.”
Leo’s recent comments on classical art
Leo’s remarks followed his address during a private audience with artists on Oct. 2 in which he explained the difference between authentic art and art created by artificial intelligence (AI).
“There is an ontological difference — even before an aesthetic one — between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of the human, whereas ‘authentic culture and art preserve this spark,’” Leo said, quoting from his encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas.
Pope warns that ‘watering down’ Christianity’s demands won’t make it more attractive
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday called on Christians to be capable of “viewing the world in a positive light,” while urging them to be actively committed to transforming society according to the spirit of the Gospel, without watering down the Christian message.
“It is certainly not by watering down the content or softening the demands that Christianity can be made attractive,” he recalled on Wednesday, citing the address he delivered to the plenary assembly of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section on Fundamental Questions Regarding Evangelization in the World, on May 28.
During the general audience held in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 7, the pontiff resumed his catechetical series dedicated to the texts of the Second Vatican Council, following last week’s pause, when he reflected on his apostolic journey to France.
Leo thus continued his catechesis on the conciliar constitution Gaudium et Spes. In particular, he focused his reflection on Chapter 4 of the first part of the document, which is devoted to the Church’s mission in the contemporary world.
“It is the task of the whole people of God, especially pastors and theologians, to discern what in the cultures of our time is worthy of consideration, always taking the word of God and the tradition of the Church as the supreme criteria for discernment. This requires a balanced mind, free from cultural trends, capable of viewing the world in a positive light whilst remaining steadfast in preserving and presenting the Gospel message in its entirety,” he said.
We ‘cannot accept the oppression of the weak’
Before thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Leo XIV reflected on the vocation of the lay faithful in the world and recalled that Vatican II fostered a new awareness of the responsibility of all the baptized in the Church’s mission.
Referring to the concrete demands of the Christian faith, Leo XIV said that, by worshipping Christ, “the believer cannot accept the oppression of the weak and the poor, nor the unjust structures that perpetuate conditions of dependence and injustice.”
“The social doctrine of the Church guides the actions of Christians, who collaborate with all people of goodwill in promoting the common good,” he added.
The principal settings for this evangelizing mission, the Holy Father recalled, are the family and the workplace, though it extends to every sphere of life.
The Church’s purpose is not political
The pontiff also made clear that the Church’s purpose is not political in nature but consists rather in bearing witness to faith and charity.
“The council fathers remind us that the Church’s mission is fulfilled also in contributing to the construction of the earthly city. However, her methods and aims are not primarily of a political order; rather, they consist in bearing witness to faith and charity, together with commitment for justice, peace, and fraternity,” he said.
The Church’s ‘first mission’
Leo XIV further explained that the Second Vatican Council reminds us that the Church is neither “above” nor “beside” the world but is, as it were, grafted into it.
In this sense, he emphasized that the Church “journeys through history in the midst of peoples and cultures,” though its “first mission” remains “to help people be attentive to the profound questions of life: those concerning our origin and our destiny, as well as those concerning the meaning of love and suffering.”
“The logic of profit at all costs and the manipulation of information risk exerting undue pressure on people to conform to a lifestyle centered on the consumption of material goods, but our hearts are made to look upwards,” he said.
Consistency between the ‘faith we profess and our lives’
Leo then recalled that proclaiming the Gospel requires consistency of life on the part of believers. To carry out the Church’s evangelizing mission effectively, the pontiff said, “it is necessary for every baptized person to commit to cooperating with the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that their faith may be living and expressed in consistent behavior.”
In this context, he recalled that the council fathers stated that the discrepancy between professed faith and daily life “deserves to be counted among the more serious errors of our age.”
The importance of the rosary
During his greetings to Italian-speaking faithful after the catechesis, the pope recalled the Oct. 7 liturgical memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary and emphasized the importance of this traditional Marian prayer, noting that it is “greatly cherished in the Church’s tradition.”
The Holy Father stressed that Mary is a “sure refuge amid the difficulties of life.” The memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrated each year on Oct. 7, recalls the special protection of the Virgin Mary over the Church and encourages devotion to the holy rosary as a path of contemplation, conversion, and the strengthening of faith.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.