Discalced Carmelites prepare to celebrate jubilee year of St. John of the Cross
Poster for the St. John of the Cross 2026 Jubilee. / Credit: Iberian Province of the Discalced Carmelites
ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 4, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
The Iberian Province of the Discalced Carmelites is preparing to celebrate the jubilee year of St. John of the Cross, marking the 300th anniversary of his canonization and the 100th anniversary of his proclamation as a doctor of the Church.
The jubilee year dedicated to St. John of the Cross was approved by the Apostolic Penitentiary at the request of the Order of Discalced Carmelites and the dioceses of Ávila, Jaén, and Segovia in Spain, which are particularly linked to the life and work of the mystic and reformer of the Carmelite order, along with St. Teresa of Ávila.
The superior of the Iberian Province of the Discalced Carmelites, Friar Francisco Sánchez Oreja, stated in a message commemorating the jubilee that “the centenaries serve to confirm that St. John of the Cross, whom we are celebrating, is still alive and has a word he continues to speak” to today’s world.
“The message he has left us is one of seeking the divine, calling us to immerse ourselves in God in a lived experience of theological life. The message of an eminent witness of the living God who speaks of him and the things of God. A message to forge and form believers in mature faith, in a greater intimacy with God,” the priest noted.
For Sánchez, this jubilee “should be a time to deepen our knowledge and study of St. John of the Cross,” who is “a living image of the authentic Carmelite” not only because of his doctrine or as the founder of the Discalced Carmelites but also “because with his concrete existence, with the events of his life, he has manifested the Carmelite vocation and shows us the image of the Carmelite religious.”
Sánchez described the patron saint of Spanish poets as a discreet and virtuous man who “did not seek to act for reward but as an act of gratitude to God.”
St. John of the Cross is also portrayed as an ascetic man who rejected society’s honors, a spiritual person “who lived in an atmosphere of prayer,” a witness of God with a “great capacity for interiority and contemplation” who seeks the truth “that lies beyond what we perceive at first glance.”
Poor ever since he was a child, he embraced ‘evangelical’ poverty
The superior of the Carmelites also emphasized in his biographical sketch that the founder of the Discalced Carmelites knew poverty from childhood, to the point that “he saw his father and his brother die of hunger.”
This reality was a school of life that led him to move from place to place, beg in the streets, and perform the most menial jobs: “All of this helped him to be a humble and simple person,” even when he held positions of authority in the order.
The friar also emphasized that the saint “voluntarily took up evangelical poverty, embracing the poor Christ, which translates into a life based on work, sobriety, and detachment from riches.”
Fundamental attitudes of St. John of the Cross
Among these, he highlighted “faith in the living and true God found in the person of Jesus Christ,” hope “that helps us understand that not everything ends here and now, but that we are called to communion of life with him,” and charity, which “gives life and value to the works of faith and hope.”
“His example is an ideal for life, his writings, a treasure to share with all those who seek the face of God today, and his doctrine is also a word for us today,” Sánchez emphasized.
The St. John of the Cross Jubilee Year will be inaugurated on Dec. 13 with the opening of the holy door at the Church of the Sepulchre of St. John of the Cross in Segovia and will extend until Dec. 26, 2026, when the closing ceremony will take place in Úbeda, the town in the province of Jaén where he died.
The jubilee churches that can be visited on pilgrimage during these months are: St. Cyprian Parish in Fontiveros, the saint’s birthplace; St. Teresa of Jesus Basilica in Ávila; and the conventual church of the Discalced Carmelite nuns in Duruelo in the Diocese of Ávila.
In the Diocese of Jaén, the jubilee church will be the church-oratory of the Discalced Carmelite convent in Úbeda and in the Diocese of Segovia, the church of the Discalced Carmelites in Segovia, where the tomb of St. John of the Cross is located.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
‘You leave or we’ll kick you out’ can’t be only answer for migrants, Chilean archbishop says
La Moneda Presidential Palace in Santiago, Chile. / Credit: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 4, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Chileans are preparing to go to the polls once again to elect their president. Following the general elections, two candidates will be vying to replace the current president, Gabriel Boric: Jeannette Jara, a former government official, and the opposition candidate José Antonio Kast of the Republican Party.
In a climate marked by insecurity, rising crime rates, and the migration crisis, citizens are closely watching the proposals of both candidates to address these problems.
The archbishop of Concepción, Sergio Pérez de Arce, addressed the debate over the situation of immigrants without legal status in the country in a column titled “It’s Either ‘You Leave or We Expel You’?” in which he maintains that migration policy cannot be reduced to these two options.
The question that titles his column refers to the warning that candidate José Antonio Kast gave to immigrants who are residing illegally in Chile, whom he assured that they have “100 days” to each make “the appropriate decision and leave our country” before being expelled, a measure he will implement if he takes office as president on March 11, 2026.
Jara, the Communist Party candidate, adopted the idea of the liberal Franco Parisi — a candidate in the first round of elections for president — to address the problem of illegal immigration by means of a proposal “very focused on technological control of the border” and proposes “creating a digital wall” with tools such as biometric control.
Regarding Kast’s countdown for immigrants to leave the country, she considers it “a campaign stunt.”
In recent weeks, Peru, which lies on Chile’s northern border, has strengthened border control there by deploying military forces, resulting in nearly a hundred migrants being stranded in northern Chile.
In response, the archbishop of Concepción stated that “the response to migrants in an irregular situation [not legally present] in the country cannot be simply ‘you leave now, voluntarily, or we will expel you with nothing but the clothes on your back’ in 100 days.”
“There are foreigners who have been in Chile for years, who work and contribute to the country, who have family and emotional ties here, and who even have children born in Chile (who are therefore Chilean citizens). Many of them have wanted to regularize their situation, but they have been given almost no alternatives,” he lamented.
“On the other hand, leaving Chile today means exposing oneself only to uncertainty, since neighboring countries are closing their borders, Venezuela is still in a political and social crisis, and is also in conflict with the United States. It means exposing people and families to new, painful, and unsafe displacement,” he warned.
“Can Chilean society offer as the only solution: ‘Either you leave or we’ll kick you out’? Can politics be reduced solely to threats and a punitive response to human realities [in such precarious situations]?” he asked.
“It’s not humane, it’s not rational, it is not in keeping with the Gospel. It’s not the best policy. There are other paths to explore that are more in line with human dignity. That is what is expected of governments and presidential candidates,” he asserted.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Finland’s only Catholic bishop appeals for help for his ‘booming’ Church
Bishop Raimo Goyarrola, the only Catholic bishop in Finland, speaks with CNA in Houston in November 2025 on a fundraising trip for his “mission” Church. / Credit: Amira Abuzeid/CNA
Houston, Texas, Dec 4, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The bishop of Helsinki in Finland, Raimo Goyarrola, the only Catholic bishop in the Nordic country that shares a 1,000-mile border with Russia, has been traveling in the U.S. to raise funds to support the small Catholic population there, which has seen explosive growth in the last five years.
Goyarrola, originally from Bilbao, Spain — along with Father Jean Claude Kabeza, a genocide survivor from Rwanda and the vicar general and pastor of St. Henry’s Cathedral in Helsinki — spoke with CNA in Houston recently as the two made their way through Texas seeking to raise funds for the Finnish Church.
“It’s a growing Church, but it’s very poor, and filled with immigrants and refugees,” Goyarrola told CNA. “There are 125 different nationalities, and many different rites … Maronites, Chaldeans … It’s a richness, but also a pastoral challenge.”
There are currently more than 300 unbaptized adults preparing to enter the Catholic Church in Finland, according to Kabeza. With Catholics making up about 0.2% of the country’s 5.6 million people, he called the growth “booming.”
Goyarrola explained that the Catholic Church in the country is “a mission Church.” There are no Catholic schools in the country, so he is seeking to build one in the capital city of Helsinki, along with a pastoral center from which to coordinate catechetical and charitable works.
Currently, there are eight parishes in the entire country, which is about the size of Montana, and four of those parishes cannot meet expenses. While Masses are being said in 33 cities, Goyarrola said some families still must travel 200 miles to attend Mass because there are not enough churches or priests, which he refers to as a “blessed problem.”
The diocese rents space from 20 Lutheran churches and five Orthodox churches in 25 of the 33 cities.
In Helsinki, the Catholic Church pays 12,000 euros ($14,000) a month to rent a larger and empty Lutheran church in order to say Masses and for other church activities.
St. Henry’s Cathedral is “too small,” its pastor, Kabeza, said. “We were saying eight Masses a day, and people were still standing outside.”
In a country with frigid winters, Kabeza said that “as their pastor and father, I hated to see my children outside in the cold when they came to Mass.”
Although 65% of the population is nominally Lutheran, the country is very secular, according to the two men. About 0.3% of the population are Orthodox. These two denominations, along with Catholicism at 0.2% of the population, are the largest religious groups in the country.
A ‘paradise of ecumenism’
Because the different churches rely on one another, Goyarrola called the country a “paradise of ecumenism.”
“We are very close,” the bishop said of his Lutheran and Orthodox compatriots. Last year, almost 400 Orthodox, Catholics, and Lutherans attended a Marian procession in Helsinki on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.
“The Orthodox brought their icons and we brought our statues,” the bishop said. “Two choirs, one Orthodox and one Catholic, and both bishops along with several Lutheran pastors participated in the procession.”
Both men joked that when just 50 people attend an outdoor event in Finland, it makes the news. Hundreds of Christians walking through the streets honoring the Virgin Mary did not, however.
The bishop said a 160-page joint declaration on Church ministry and the Eucharist signed in 2017 between the Catholic and Lutheran churches was met with amazement by the Vatican.
The growing ecumenism there “is amazing. It is a new page in the history of the Church,” he said.
A ‘free hand’ during COVID led to growth
Goyarrola, who joined Opus Dei at 18 and eventually became a priest and a trained surgeon, first arrived in Finland in 2006 and was made a bishop in 2023.
He said the Church began to grow quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government gave “a free hand to the churches during that time,” the bishop said. “The Catholic Church opened its doors while the rest of the churches kept theirs closed. We continued to say Masses, and our buildings were always physically open and people were coming in to pray.”
According to Kabeza, “the people were looking for something because they were afraid.”
The vicar general said many young men who are interested in the faith are talking to him about their desire for the sacraments and the importance of tradition.
“The young men want to have something that is very strong, something which is stable,” he said.
The Catholic Church is ‘a family’
Kabeza’s father was shot to death in front of Kabeza’s mother and sisters after the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Kabeza, along with his mother and five of his siblings, lived in a refugee camp for six years before moving to Finland through a United Nations program for genocide survivors.
“Faith, forgiveness, and family are the basis of life, which cannot be lived without those three things,” he said. “After the genocide, if you still had a mother and so many siblings, you have to give thanks because others lost everybody.”
Goyarrola said he hopes his fundraising trips to the U.S., made possible through friendships with other bishops and cardinals, will be fruitful. He referred to something he heard Pope Leo XIV say recently: “Christians are brothers and sisters who need to support each other.”
“We are children of the same Father and the same Mother, the Church,” the bishop said.
He said he hopes “our Catholic family around the world” will help him as he works to take care of “his children” in one of the world’s most secular and expensive countries.
“It’s a spiritual tsunami,” he said of the growing Finnish Church.
“We have a lot of faith, happiness, and joy. We have a lot of dreams, but we have no money,” he said, laughing.
Bishop Simon Kulli, witness to the faith in post-communist Albania, dies at 52
Bishop Simon Kulli of Sapë, Albania. / Credit: ACN
ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 3, 2025 / 18:51 pm (CNA).
The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) announced the sudden death of Bishop Simon Kulli of Sapë in northern Albania on Saturday, Nov. 29, at the age of 52.
The prelate, a close collaborator of ACN and one of the most prominent voices in the Albanian Church, belonged to the first generation of priests formed after the fall of the communist regime, considered the most atheist and repressive of the 20th century.
In a statement, the pontifical foundation said that it received ”with deep sorrow the news of the sudden death of Bishop Kulli, who has been a project partner of ACN … He rendered an invaluable service not only to the Church but also to his country and to humanity.”
A vocation born from the suffering of the Albanian martyrs
During a visit to the international headquarters of ACN earlier this year, Kulli recounted the origin of his priestly vocation, which was inspired by “seeing one of those old priests [who had been in prison for 28 years] celebrating Mass in Latin in my parish for the first time” after the fall of communism and the restoration of religious freedom in Albania.
“That was the exact moment I felt my vocation. Seeing that suffering priest, who found it so difficult to celebrate Mass, who was bent over at the altar because of the years in prison, I thought I could replace him,” the bishop recalled.
His personal story reflected the drama and hope of the Church in Albania. He was secretly baptized a few days after birth by the Stigmatine nun Sister Marije Kaleta, who risked her life secretly bringing the Eucharist to the sick and baptizing children all while keeping out of sight of the communist police.
“This baptism that I received was a great gift that the Lord wished to give me, in secret, at the height of the communist regime. If somebody were to discover that I had been baptized, my grandparents and the rest of my family would have been thrown into jail,” he explained in an interview with ACN in February.
A pastor marked by the suffering of the martyrs
Kulli was part of a generation that personally knew the so-called “living martyrs” of Albania: priests, men and women religious, and laypeople who endured years of imprisonment and torture for remaining faithful to their religion. Their testimonies profoundly impacted the future bishop.
“They filled me with great hope. Even though I was never in prison, I felt what it was like to live in a country in which man is deprived of his main sustenance: faith. And these testimonies were a great source of hope for me and my future,” he said.
The bishop also served as the Albanian Bishops’ Conference’s commissioner for the pastoral care of health care workers and was a member of the executive committee of the European Federation of Catholic Medical Associations.
In 2024, he actively participated in promoting the Albanian martyrs, 38 of whom were beatified in 2016 and two more in 2024. “Their blood will produce many vocations,” he said at the time.
A year before his death, representatives from ACN visited four Albanian dioceses and met with Kulli in Sapë. There, the bishop reiterated his gratitude for the assistance provided to the Church in Albania.
During his last interview with the pontifical foundation, the bishop gave a powerful message addressed to persecuted Christians: “After death, there is always resurrection … Stay strong, with no fear… because Christ always wins… with Christ you can overcome any difficulty.”
ACN noted that “his testimony of faith, humility, and joy will surely be a fruitful seed for the Catholic Church in Albania. May he rest in eternal peace!”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
The kitchen friar’s book that inspires Pope Leo’s spirituality
Pope Leo XIV speaks with reporters on his flight from Beirut to Rome on Dec. 2, 2025. / Credit: Elias Turk/EWTN
CNA Staff, Dec 3, 2025 / 18:21 pm (CNA).
On the papal plane on the way home from his first international trip, Pope Leo XIV referenced a book that has greatly influenced his spirituality after being asked by a journalist about the conclave and what it’s been like becoming the pope.
“Besides St. Augustine,” Pope Leo said that “The Practice of the Presence of God” by a 17th-century Carmelite friar named Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection is a book that can help anyone to understand his spirituality.
“It’s a very simple book by someone who doesn’t even give his last name,” the pope told journalists on the papal plane Dec. 2. “I read it many years ago, but it describes a type of prayer and spirituality where one simply gives his life to the Lord and allows the Lord to lead.”
“And if you want to know something about me, that’s been my spirituality for many years, in midst of great challenges — living in Peru, during years of terrorism, being called to service in places where I never thought I would be called to serve to — I trust in God, and that message is something that I share with all people,” he continued.
After being asked what it was like for him during the conclave, Pope Leo mentioned the book and said: “I resigned myself to the fact, when I saw how things were going, [that] this could be a reality.”
“I took a deep breath. I said, here we go. Lord, you’re in charge, and you lead the way,” he said.
Who was Brother Lawrence?
“The Practice of the Presence of God” is a collection of Brother Lawrence’s teachings — memorialized in about 30 pages of letters and records of his conversations.
Though Brother Lawrence was virtually unknown in life, Father Joseph de Beaufort compiled his wisdom into a pamphlet published soon after his death in 1691. The book is now beloved by Catholics and Protestants alike.
In his writings, Brother Lawrence presents a spirituality that involves being constantly in contact with God, being accompanied by him in all things — from cooking to shoe repair.
Before he was Brother Lawrence, Nicholas Herman was a soldier during the Thirty Years’ War. Because of a wartime injury, his leg impaired his movement and caused him constant pain for life. But as a young adult, he had a vision of Christ that would inspire him for the rest of his life; or, as de Beaufort recalled: “which has never since been effaced from his soul.”
He went on to join the Discalced Carmelite Prior in Paris, doing humble work as a cook, and eventually working in the sandal repair shop as well.
Brother Lawrence believed that little things could please God just as much as great things.
“We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work but the love with which it is performed,” he taught.
Amid the busy environment of a kitchen serving about 100 people, he still connected with God.
In one recorded conversation, de Beaufort recalled Brother Lawrence saying that “the time of business … does not with me differ from the time of prayer.”
“And in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess GOD in as great tranquillity as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament,” he continued.
Catholic Charities affiliates fear SNAP disruptions amid Trump administration warning
The Trump administration intends to cut off federal food assistance for 21 states, which has caused concern for some local Catholic Charities affiliates. / Credit: rblfmr/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 3, 2025 / 17:51 pm (CNA).
President Donald Trump’s administration intends to cut off federal food assistance for 21 states amid a dispute over reporting data about recipients, which has caused concern for some local Catholic Charities affiliates whose areas may be affected.
In May, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins ordered states to share certain records with the federal government about people who receive food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). She said this was to ensure benefits only went to eligible people.
Although 29 states complied, 21 Democratic-led states refused to provide the information and sued the administration. The lawsuit alleges that providing the information — which includes immigration status, income, and identifying information — would be a privacy violation.
Rollins said in a Cabinet meeting on Dec. 2 that “as of next week, we have begun and will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states until they comply and they … allow us to partner with them to root out this fraud and protect the American taxpayer.”
She said an initial overview of the data from states that complied showed SNAP benefits given to 186,000 people using Social Security numbers for someone who is not alive and about a half of a million people receiving SNAP benefits more than once. The Department of Agriculture has not released that data.
If funding is halted, this would be the second disruption for SNAP benefits in just two months. In November, SNAP payments were delayed for nearly two weeks until lawmakers negotiated an end to the government shutdown.
For many of the states that will be impacted, Catholic Charities is the largest provider of food assistance after SNAP, and some affiliate leaders fear that the disruption will cause problems.
Rose Bak, chief operating officer of Catholic Charities of Oregon, told CNA the nonprofit keeps stockpiles for emergencies, but “we’ve gone through most of our supplies” amid the November disruption and an increase in people’s needs caused by the high cost of groceries.
She said their food pantry partners have told her “they’ve never been this low on stock” as well.
“Our phones were ringing off the hook,” Bak said. “Our mailboxes were flooded with emails.”
When asked how another disruption would compare to the problems in November, she said: “I think it will definitely be worse.”
“People are scared,” Bak said. “They’re worried about how they’re going to feed their families.”
Ashley Valis, chief operating officer of Catholic Charities of Baltimore, similarly told CNA that another disruption “would place immense strain on families already struggling as well as on organizations like ours, which are experiencing growing demand for food and emergency assistance.”
“Food insecurity forces children, parents, and older adults to make impossible trade-offs between rent, groceries, and medication,” she said.
James Malloy, CEO and president of Catholic Charities DC, told CNA: “We work to be responsive to the needs of the community as they fluctuate,” and added: “SNAP cuts will certainly increase that need.”
“These benefits are critical for veterans, children, and many low-income workers who have multiple jobs to cover basic expenses,” he said.
Catholic Charities USA launched a national fundraising effort in late October, just before SNAP benefits were delayed the first time. Catholic Charities USA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lilly Endowment announces 45 multimillion-dollar grants for theological schools
null / Credit: Mehdi Kasumov/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 3, 2025 / 17:21 pm (CNA).
The Lilly Endowment announced it will distribute 45 large-scale grants to theological schools across the U.S. and Canada, including directing about $60 million to several Catholic institutions.
The grants, which range from $2.5 million to $10 million, are a part of the Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative, helping theological schools to “enhance their educational and financial capacities” and train pastors “to effectively lead congregations from a wide variety of contexts,” according to a press release from the organization.
The grants will benefit a range of ecumenical traditions, including Catholic institutions, as well as mainline Protestant, evangelical, and Orthodox ones.
Catholic institutions receiving grants include The Catholic University of America, which received over $7 million; Mount Angel Abbey in Saint Benedict, Oregon, which received $10 million; Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Wickliffe, Ohio, which received nearly $8.9 million; the University of Notre Dame, which received over $5 million; and Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary, which received $10 million. Loyola University of Chicago received $10 million and Santa Clara University was awarded $10 million.
Saint John’s said in a statement its grant would be used as a part of a mission called “Stabilitas: Renewing Rural Ministry.” It will collaborate with nine partner dioceses across the country as a part of the mission, including the Diocese of Saint Cloud, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the Diocese of Duluth, the Diocese of Rapid City, the Diocese of Sioux Falls, the Archdiocese of Dubuque, the Diocese of Davenport, the Diocese of Cheyenne, and the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings.
The Catholic University of America said it would use its $7.2 million grant to develop a program to help “strengthen practical leadership skills of current and new priests, seminarians, and other pastoral leaders.” The program also will provide ongoing formation for bishops, according to a release from the university. The Catholic Project will serve as a partner in the program, called New Wineskins.
“This initiative allows us to address some of the most pressing issues in leadership for seminarians, men’s religious communities, bishops, and pastoral leaders. This is an opportunity to build on the School of Theology’s 130-year foundation of preparing leaders for service to the Church,” said Susan Timoney, the principal investigator for New Wineskins.
The initiative has been in place since 2021 and has provided more than $700 million in grants to 163 theological schools.
“Theological schools play a vital role in preparing and supporting pastoral leaders for Christian congregations,” said Christopher L. Coble, the Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “We believe that one of the most promising paths for theological schools to carry forward their important missions and enhance their impact is to work collaboratively with other schools, as well as congregations and other church-related organizations.”
“By doing so they can strengthen their collective capacities to prepare and support pastoral leaders for effective congregational service now and in the future,” he added.
“Collectively, these schools will work collaboratively with nearly 400 other theological schools, colleges and universities, congregations, church agencies, denominations and other religious organizations to educate and support more effectively both aspiring and current pastoral leaders of churches,” the Lilly Endowment said.
Catholics form coalition opposed to the death penalty amid execution surge
Sister Helen Prejean is an anti-death-penalty advocate. / Credit: Don LaVange via Wikimedia Commons
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 3, 2025 / 16:42 pm (CNA).
Catholics and pro-life conservatives joined a broad coalition of more than 50 organizations seeking to end the death penalty in the United States amid the 2025 surge in executions.
Leaders of the coalition, the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty (USCEPD), said they hope the coordinated team can abolish the death penalty in states where it is still practiced. Capital punishment is still on the books in 27 states, but just 16 have executed prisoners over the past decade.
The group’s goals include working with Democrats and Republicans to pass state-level laws that end the use of capital punishment, reducing the imposition of the death penalty in jurisdictions where it remains legal, and increasing awareness about the risk of executing innocent people, the lack of fairness in the system, and the harms inflicted on everyone affected by the death penalty.
In 2024, there were 25 people executed in the United States. In 2025, there have already been 44 executions, and three more are scheduled this month. Florida executed one person in 2024 and has already executed 17 people in 2025. Another two people are scheduled for execution this month.
At the same time, public support for the death penalty hit a 50-year low in 2025, with about 52% of Americans supporting its use and 44% opposing it, according to Gallup, which is a sharp decline from the 1980s and 1990s, when support was above 70% most years. Juries are also less likely to give out death sentences.
Sister Helen Prejean, who serves on the advisory council of the coalition, said in a Dec. 3 news conference that the death penalty functions as a “semi-secret ritual behind prison walls” and that “when people are separated from this experience, they just go along [with it].”
She discussed her activism in Texas against the execution of Ivan Cantu in 2024 and noted that “people in Texas did not even know an execution was going on.” She said if people have better information, “they will reject that.”
Prejean quoted Psalm 85:12, which says “truth will spring from the earth,” and added that it also “springs up from the experience of people.”
“When we bring them close, they get it,” she said.
Prejean said people who are poor and people who are ethnic minorities tend to face harsher penalties in the criminal justice system, and there is an inaccurate belief that “only the worst of the worst” will be handed the death penalty.
“To give the state the right to take life means you’re going to trust the state,” she said.
One of the group’s partners is the Catholic Mobilizing Network, which works closely with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to oppose the death penalty. Other organizers include Amnesty International USA, the American Civil Liberties Union, The Innocence Project, and Conservatives Concerned.
Catholic Mobilizing Network Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy told CNA in a statement that the campaign “is an exciting expression of the growing momentum and interest in ending capital punishment in the United States.”
“The impressive range of organizations involved in the USCEDP represent the incredibly effective efforts happening across the country for this critical mission,” she said. “Catholic Mobilizing Network is honored to be part [of] USCEDP and our collective endeavor to dismantle a system of death and honor the dignity of all life.”
Demetrius Minor, executive director of Conservatives Concerned, said in the news conference that there’s been a growing concern about the death penalty “from a pro-life perspective” within conservative circles.
“[There is a] significant growing interest in the pro-life community into how the death penalty fits into their advocacy for pro-life issues,” he said.
Minor said many state-level bills to abolish the death penalty have won bipartisan support, such as a few Republicans joining the successful effort in Virginia and Republicans signing onto unsuccessful efforts in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana.
“We can ensure that these efforts continue to be inclusive and bipartisan in the future,” he said.
In addition to national advocacy groups, state-level groups in 23 states have joined the coalition’s efforts.
Nigerian, Iraqi priests tell of aiding persecuted Christians seen in photo exhibit
A photo display of persecuted Christians in Iraq and Nigeria can be seen at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., until Feb. 8, 2026. / Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA
Washington, D.C., Dec 3, 2025 / 13:50 pm (CNA).
A discussion featuring Father Atta Barkindo and Father Karam Shamasha breathed life into a photo exhibit featuring the “forgotten faces” of persecuted Christians in Nigeria and Iraq on Tuesday.
The photo display can be seen at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., until Feb. 8, 2026. Stephen Rasche, a professor of theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville and senior fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute, who spent years serving persecuted Christians in Iraq and Nigeria, said he hopes people will see “the spark of human dignity” in his photographs of Iraqi and Nigerian Christians on display.
The Dec. 2 discussion, titled “Seeing the Persecuted and Displaced: Experts Tell Their Stories,” organized in part by the Knights of Columbus, comes amid calls for the U.S. to take concrete action toward the Nigerian government after President Donald Trump announced his decision to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern (CPC).
Rasche was a founding member of the Catholic University in Erbil in 2014. According to his bio, he has served as an official representative to the Vatican Dicastery on Refugees and Migrants, and belongs officially to the historical commission to the Vatican postulator in the cause of Father Ragheed Ganni, a servant of God, and three Iraqi deacons who were murdered in June 2007.
Alongside Rasche’s photos of Nigerian Christians, Barkindo said the persecution of his community in Nigeria is happening on two levels. “The first level is the level of government policy,” he said, “and the second level is the physical violence that we have seen and continue to see in Nigeria.”
Barkindo said before Nigeria became a country, there were two existing Islamic caliphates in the north: the Kanem Borno Empire and the Sokoto Caliphate, both of which had diplomatic relationships with the Ottoman Empire and “were fully established as a pure Islamic territory.” After the British destroyed these empires and installed constitutional democracy, he said, “the grief that followed the dismantling of the Islamic empires actually never left northern Nigeria.”
On a policy level, he said, the government then established sharia law, shuttered Christian mission schools and other institutions, and made it “increasingly difficult” for Christians in the north to participate in civilian life.
“The ideology was very established, and that was what now led to the physical violence that we now see in Nigeria,” Barkindo said.
“The most important thing is that the violence evolved over time,” he said. “It evolved because there was a complete and massive failure of the government to deal with the insecurity and the situation.”
As director of The Kukah Centre, Barkindo has led grassroots efforts to bolster security in Nigeria. He holds a licentiate degree in political Islam and interreligious dialogue from the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Rome and a doctorate from the SOAS University of London.
In an interview with CNA, Barkindo described his efforts with The Kukah Centre to promote peace throughout Nigeria’s 36 states. “We have the National Peace Committee that mediates in elections, but they don’t have the gift of bilocation,” he said, explaining how the center goes to states where the Peace Committee cannot reach and trains its civilians in mediation and data collection on early warning and early response for security threats.
“If they observe serious issues and collect intelligence, they can flag that with us at the national level. We reach out to the government and they’re able to mitigate the situation before it turns into crisis,” he said. The Kukah Centre has done this in 23 states so far and hopes to expand its reach to all 36 states before next year’s elections.
Reflecting on the evening’s discussion, Barkindo said “the willingness of the American people to just listen” had struck him.
“America, I don’t want to sound too political, is such a significant country right now globally: When Trump spoke, the whole of Nigeria shook,” he said with emotion. “It’s like for the first time Christians now have somewhere to run to because we have been shouting and speaking for years.”
Persecution in Iraq
During his testimony, Shamasha also noted the deeply engrained presence of Islamist ideology in Iraq, where he said “we are not dying in the streets today as it was in 2014, but our persecution is different today … there is a lot of discrimination against Christians in this land.”
Shamasha recounted his experience of persecution, which began in 2003 while at a seminary in Baghdad, which closed several times while he was a student. He was eventually forced to leave in 2005 for Erbil, the Kurdish region of Iraq. He became a parish priest in the Nineveh Plains, then fled once more to Erbil in 2014 with the invasion of ISIS.
It was during this time that the Catholic University of Erbil was founded. While the Knights of Columbus helped to support and feed the Iraqi Christian community, Shamasha said, the university sought to help young people to not only survive but also “to live with dignity” and eventually become leaders, he said.
“Thanks to God, we are still there,” the Iraqi priest said. “We are fighting to remain not just numbers in these countries, but we are fighting to, in fact, be a real member that can shine, that can give light to all the people that they are.”
Shamasha holds a doctorate and master’s degree in moral theology from the Pontifical Alphonsian Academy in Rome as well as degrees in canon law, interreligious studies, and priestly formation from the Gregorian University, Lateran University, and the Congregation for the Clergy.
Nigerian foundation defends Catholic bishop after remarks about Christian genocide
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto is the founder of The Kukah Centre, a Nigeria-based public policy institute. / Credit: The Kukah Centre
ACI Africa, Dec 3, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
The Kukah Centre (TKC), a Nigeria-based public policy institute, has responded to what it describes as a “mischaracterization” of the remarks of its founder, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, about the alleged genocide of Christians in the West African nation.
In a press release on Tuesday, the executive director of TKC, Father Atta Barkindo, blamed the media for its inadequate reporting of Kukah’s remarks, which he made during the launch of the 2025 World Report on Religious Freedom at the Vatican on Oct. 21, and in his subsequent address to the 46th Supreme Convention of the Knights of St. Mulumba (KSM) in Kaduna on Friday, Nov. 28.
Barkindo said what the media are reporting reflect neither Kukah’s remarks nor the context of his work spanning half a century.
“TKC has followed with humility and keen attention recent reports about remarks attributed to our founder, His Lordship Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, concerning the very current issue of the protection — or lack thereof — of the right to freedom of conscience, religion, and worship in Nigeria, particularly as it affects adherents of the Christian faith in northern Nigeria and related concerns about persecution of Christians,” Barkindo said.
He added that the foundation is “heartened by the heightened public interest in both the subject matter of religious freedom in Nigeria and in the views of our founder on the subject.”
At a gathering of KSM in Kaduna on Nov. 28, Kukah reportedly reaffirmed his view that current claims of a genocide or systematic persecution of Christians in Nigeria are not supported by credible data. He reportedly argued that the claim “1,200 churches are burned every year in Nigeria” lacks verification.
He asked: “In which Nigeria?”, pointing out that no one had checked with the Catholic Church to confirm such numbers.
The bishop emphasized that “genocide” is defined not by the number of deaths or attacks alone but by intent, a deliberate plan to eliminate a group. “You can kill 10 million people, and it still won’t amount to genocide,” he said. “What matters is intent.”
He also challenged the use of terms such as “martyrdom,” pointing out that some violence might be criminal or opportunistic rather than motivated by religious hatred.
Various religious organizations and Christian advocacy groups in Nigeria have shared divergent opinions.
The Christian Association of Nigeria publicly stated that ongoing violence against Christians across Nigeria amounts to a “Christian genocide.” It has claimed that many attacks are clearly targeted at Christian communities.
Critics argue that focusing only on “intent” or official data overlooks reality on the ground. Many Christians who have lost family or property feel vulnerable and unsafe, even if there is no verified nationwide data.
Still others worry that Kukah’s stance may dampen international awareness or pressure that could help protect vulnerable communities.
In the Dec. 1 press release, Barkindo said: “For the avoidance of doubt, at no point has His Lordship diminished the seriousness of the crisis of faith-based persecution in parts of Nigeria nor has he failed to identify with the very real sufferings caused by it.”
Referring to Kukah’s remarks at the Vatican event on Oct. 21, Barkindo said the bishop acknowledged that there is a problem in Nigeria.
At the Vatican, Kukah said: “By whatever names we choose, the fact is that Nigerians are dying unacceptable deaths across the country. In many cases, they are targeted because of their beliefs but also because of their ethnicity.”
Barkindo maintained that TKC continues to urge zero tolerance for religious persecution, solidarity with the victims and affected communities, and accountability for the perpetrators.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.