Bishop Rhoades elected USCCB secretary, 6 committee leaders elected
Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, the chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ religious liberty committee, speaks on the issue of immigration during a press conference on Nov. 11, 2025, at the USCCB’s fall plenary assembly in Baltimore. / Credit: Hakim Shammo/EWTN News
Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 12, 2025 / 18:01 pm (CNA).
Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, was elected to serve as secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at the Fall Plenary Assembly on Nov. 12.
The bishops held elections for the secretary position and the leadership of six committees on Wednesday. On Tuesday, they elected Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City as president and Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, as vice president of the conference.
Rhoades, who previously chaired the Committee on Religious Liberty, has criticized government policies that impose mandates for abortion and contraception. This year’s committee report laid out concerns with policies related to gender ideology and immigration enforcement as threats to the freedom of religious organizations.
The new chair of the Religious Liberty Commission will be Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon.
That election was tied between Sample and San Angelo, Texas, Bishop Michael Sis. Although Sis was granted the spot because the tiebreaking procedure defers to the older bishop, Sis withdrew his nomination to allow Sample to assume the role.
For the rest of the elections, the winner will serve as chair-elect for one year while the current chairs finish their terms. They will assume the positions in 2026.
Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia was elected chair-elect of the Committee on International Justice and Peace. The archeparchy serves many Ukrainian immigrants, whose home country continues to suffer amid the ongoing Russian invasion.
Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee was elected chair-elect of the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance. Auxiliary Bishop Peter Smith of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, was elected chair-elect of the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
The bishops also elected Bishop William Wack of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida, as chair-elect of the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis. They elected Bishop-elect Mark O’Connell of Albany, New York, as chair-elect of the Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People.
America’s bishops express opposition to indiscriminate mass deportations
Maura Moser (far left), director of the Catholic Communications Campaign, moderates a discussion on immigration with (left to right) Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, chair of the USCCB's religious liberty committee, and Bishop Mark Seitz, chairman of the USCCB's migration committee, on Nov. 11, 2025, during a press conference at the conference's fall plenary assembly in Baltimore. / Credit: Shannon Mullen/National Catholic Register
Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 12, 2025 / 17:31 pm (CNA).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) overwhelmingly voted to adopt a statement that opposes the indiscriminate mass deportation of immigrants who lack legal status and urged the government to uphold the dignity of migrants.
The bishops approved their special message on immigration at the 2025 Fall Plenary Assembly on Nov. 12. The motion passed with support from more than 95% of the American bishops who voted. It received 216 votes in favor, just five against, and only three abstentions.
“We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” the message emphasized.
“We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement,” it added. “We pray that the Lord may guide the leaders of our nation, and we are grateful for past and present opportunities to dialogue with public and elected officials.”
The bishops said they “are bound to our people by ties of communion and compassion in Our Lord Jesus Christ” and “are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants.”
“We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care,” they said.
“We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status,” they continued. “We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.”
The message recognized the contribution of immigrants and said the bishops feel compelled to “raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity” of migrants. They urged immigration reform and said “human dignity and national security are not in conflict.”
The statement also recognizes that governments have a “responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for the sake of the common good.” It goes on to call for “safe and legal pathways” for immigration.
Scripture mandates compassion for “those who are most vulnerable,” including “the stranger,” the statement noted. The Church’s concern for migrants “is a response to the Lord’s command to love as he has loved us,” it added.
The original text of the message brought to the floor did not include the language plainly stating the bishops’ opposition to large-scale deportations, which was added in a last-minute amendment to the message.
Cardinal Blase Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago introduced the amendment. He said the message needs to be clear in telling migrants “we stand with you” by expressly opposing “the indiscriminate deportation of people that is taking place.”
No bishops spoke against Cupich’s amendment.
The last time the bishops approved a special pastoral message was in 2013 in opposition to a federal contraception mandate. Such messages are meant to show “the consensus of the body” of the U.S. Catholic bishops, according to a USCCB statement.
The discussion of deportations and immigration enforcement was a major theme throughout the duration of the plenary assembly.
On the previous day, USCCB Committee on Migration Chairman Bishop Mark Seitz announced a national initiative to provide accompaniment to migrants who are at risk of being deported, which was inspired by similar efforts already underway at dioceses across the country.
The initiative will focus on four areas: emergency and family support, accompaniment and pastoral care, communication of Church teaching, and solidarity through prayer and public witness.
In his address to his brother bishops, Seitz directly criticized President Donald Trump’s administration for carrying out the “campaign promise of mass deportations.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in late October that the administration has carried out more than 527,000 deportations this year and another 1.6 million people have self-deported.
“This is just the beginning,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an Oct. 27 statement.
Pope Leo XIV has encouraged the American bishops to provide a more unified voice in support of the dignity of migrants. He met with Seitz and other bishops and supporters of migrants last month to discuss the plight of immigrants in the United States.
According to one person present, Dylan Corbett, the founding executive director of Hope Border Institute, Pope Leo told the group: “The Church cannot stay silent before injustice. You stand with me, and I stand with you.”
The Holy Father last week said that “there’s a deep reflection that needs to be made in terms of what’s happening” with migrants in detention after detainees were denied Communion at an Illinois Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
McLaughlin told CNA last week detainees are “only briefly held [at that facility] for processing” and DHS could not accommodate religious services there for practical and safety reasons, but clergy are “more than welcome to provide services to detainees in ICE detention facilities.”
Pope Leo XIV proposes 19th-century Indian religious as a model of women’s emancipation
The beatification ceremony for Mother Elisva Vakha’i was held in the square in front of the Basilica-Shrine of Our Lady of Ransom in Vallarpadam, Kochi, Kerala, India, Nov. 8, 2025. / Credit: Congregation of the Teresian Discalced Carmelite Sisters; Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News
Vatican City, Nov 12, 2025 / 16:24 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV spoke of the beatification this week of Mother Elisva Vakha’i, a 19th-century Indian religious and founder of the Third Order of the Teresian Discalced Carmelites, highlighting her “courageous commitment to the emancipation of the poorest girls.”
“The witness of Mother Elisva Vakha’i,” the pope affirmed during his greetings in Italian at the end of his general audience on Nov. 12, “is a source of inspiration for all who work in the Church and in society for the dignity of women.”
The beatification ceremony on Nov. 8 was held in the square in front of the Basilica-Shrine of Our Lady of Ransom in Vallarpadam, Kochi, in the Indian state of Kerala, and was presided over by Cardinal Sebastian Francis, bishop of Penang, Malaysia.
Before thousands of faithful and men and women religious from across the country, the cardinal emphasized that the new blessed represents “a beacon of hope” for all “consecrated women, for all mothers, and for all those who suffer in silence and yet choose to love,” according to Vatican News.
A mother and widow called by God
Before embracing religious life, Vakha’i was married and had a daughter. She decided to take religious vows after becoming a widow, an experience that profoundly shaped her vocation and endowed her with a special sensitivity to the needs of women in her time. In a society marked by rigid cultural and religious divisions, she recognized the dignity of every person and offered concrete opportunities for education and support.
In the mid-19th century, she founded an orphanage and a primary school for the poorest and most marginalized young women. Her work was not limited to mere assistance: It was a genuine commitment to the integral formation of women; she was convinced that education was the key to the social recognition of their dignity and active participation in social and ecclesial life.
A pioneer of consecrated life for women in India
Vakha’i opened a new path for the women of Kerala, allowing them enter religious life in both the Latin and Syro-Malabar rites. Her project, deeply rooted in Carmelite and Teresian spirituality, united contemplation, service, prayer, and education.
Her example inspired her own sister, Thresia, and her daughter, Anna, who joined her in founding the first Discalced Carmelite convent in Kerala in 1866, under the spiritual guidance of Italian Carmelite missionaries. Together, they fostered a community experience that, as Cardinal Francis emphasized in his homily during her beatification, anticipated ecclesial insights now associated with the synodal journey of the Church.
An ‘inclusive” and ‘synodal’ vision
During the homily at the beatification, the cardinal emphasized the “inclusive vision” of Vakha’i, with which she “was ahead of her time and is a true expression of synodality in action: walking together in communion.”
The new blessed, he added, “shows the way” to the Church on its synodal journey “listening, discerning, and walking together.”
The foundation of her “unwavering faith,” he affirmed, “lies in her spirituality, vision, and mission, all rooted in her identity as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ through baptism, the very heart of synodality.”
With the official recognition of her holiness, the Church proposes Vakha’i as a model of evangelical life embodied in service to the poor, in the promotion of women, and in the building of fraternal communities.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Sister Mary Michael, last of Mother Angelica’s founding nuns, dies at 94
Sister Mary Michael of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, PCPA, died Nov. 10, 2025, after roughly three-quarters of a century of religious life. She was 94. / Credit: Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration
CNA Staff, Nov 12, 2025 / 15:54 pm (CNA).
Sister Mary Michael of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, PCPA, died on Nov. 10 after roughly three-quarters of a century of religious life. She was 94.
Sister Mary Michael was the last of the original five nuns who, along with EWTN foundress Mother Angelica, began the Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, Alabama. (The monastery is now located in Hanceville; EWTN, the parent company of CNA, remains in Irondale.)
Born Evelyn Shinosky on Feb. 25, 1931, to Joseph and Helen Shinosky, she entered Sancta Clara Monastery in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 15, 1951, and received the habit and her new name the following May.
Sister Mary Michael made her first profession on May 1, 1954, and her solemn profession exactly six years later in 1960. Shortly after her solemn profession she joined Mother Angelica to journey to Alabama to help found the new monastery.
Her religious community said she was renowned for her talent in baking, cooking, and sewing. Sisters frequently sought her advice when an insurmountable difficulty arose in the kitchen or a novice was at an impasse making a new habit.
Sister would go on to serve several terms as vicar and councilor for the community. With a special devotion to the Church Fathers, she was a fervent devotee and reader of St. Augustine.
Devoted to prayer until the end of her life, Sister Mary Michael attended Mass until she was physically unable to do so. In her final days she was known to fall asleep in the monastery’s infirmary with her hands folded in prayer.
Father Joseph Mary Wolfe, chapel dean and chaplain for EWTN, told CNA that Sister Mary Michael “always radiated a quiet love and joy and was always ready to use her sewing and baking skills to bring joy to others.”
“In fact, she and Siater Gabriel made the first habits for the friars here in Irondale,” he said. He noted that Sister Mary Michael “lovingly and tirelessly” served Mother Angelica in the latter’s final years, “often at the expense of her own rest.”
“When I asked Sister Michael about her own vocation, she told me that she loved St. Francis of Assisi; spending time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; and was drawn to the contemplative life,” he said.
“She wasn’t sure where she could find all three together and it was right there in the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration community in Canton, Ohio, where she entered before moving with Mother Angelica to found the new monastery,” he said.
Her passing marks the end of an era at EWTN and at the monastery — one that saw both the launch of the global Catholic network and the expansion of the religious community to include the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery.
Just days before her death, Sister Mary Michael urged followers of Christ to “keep doing what you are doing so we can be one big family in heaven.” She also expressed gratitude for prayers offered to God on her behalf.
“I just want everyone to be Catholic,” she said prior to her passing, “and to love God passionately.”
Bishops approve beatification cause of priest who ministered in U.S.-Mexico border region
Father Richard Thomas, SJ, ministered in the U.S.-Mexico border region. / Credit: Courtesy of Our Lady's Youth Center
Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 12, 2025 / 15:24 pm (CNA).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted in favor of advancing the beatification and canonization cause of the late Jesuit Father Richard Thomas.
Bishop Peter Baldacchino, who has served as bishop of Las Cruces in New Mexico since 2019, initiated the request for the Jesuit priest’s beatification. Baldacchino spoke about Thomas and his ministry to the poor at the bishops’ Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore.
“Jesus said, ‘When you hold a lunch or dinner, do not invite your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, rather … invite the poor. Blessed indeed will you be, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous,’” Baldacchino said during his Nov. 11 presentation.
Thomas “gave witness to those words of the Lord through a life dedicated to serve persons in need, primarily in the Diocese of El Paso but also in the Diocese of Las Cruces and along the southern border of the United States,” Baldacchino said.
Thomas was born in Seffner, Florida, in 1928 and entered the Jesuit order in 1945 after attending Jesuit High School in Tampa, Florida. He was ordained to the priesthood in San Francisco in 1958.
From 1964 until his death, Thomas served as the executive director of Our Lady’s Youth Center in El Paso, Texas. The center grew to include ministries to the poor around Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, including food banks, medical and dental clinics, prison and mental hospital ministries, and schools.
In 1975 Thomas started The Lord’s Ranch east of Vado, New Mexico. The ranch has provided recreation and rehabilitation to youth in need and created multiple food banks.
The priest “lived a very simple, austere lifestyle because he wanted to live in solidarity with the poor,” Baldacchino said. “He slept in a small room with very few furnishings that included a desk, a chair, and an army bed. There was no carpeting, no air conditioning, and no heating.”
“Father Thomas had a foundational vision based on the 25th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel in which Jesus said, ‘When you minister to the poor, you minister to me.’ Father Thomas believed that in serving the poor, we encounter the presence of Jesus in a special way, and we are enriched by the experience.”
The priest “recognized that each human being is made in the image of God,” Baldacchino said. This includes the unborn and the immigrant.”
Thomas was “a pioneer in the pro-life movement” and “recognized the need to be supportive of women who are in difficult circumstances because of pregnancy,” Baldacchino said. “There is currently a very vibrant pro-life community in the El Paso-Las Cruces area, and many of its leaders are people who have been mentored by Father Thomas.”
Thomas died on May 8, 2006, at The Lord’s Ranch at age 78.
A ‘miraculous meal’
Baldacchino told a story of a potential miracle by Thomas at a garbage dump in Juárez, Mexico, on Christmas Day in 1972. Thomas and some lay Catholics came across the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus tells his followers to invite the poor.
“Father Thomas and his companions decided to obey the words of Jesus, and they organized a Christmas Day meal for people who were scavengers at the garbage dump in Juárez,” Baldacchino said.
The priest and the group prepared enough food for about 150 people, but when they arrived at the dump nearly twice the number of guests were present.
“Nevertheless, they decided to share what they had,” Baldacchino said. “Much to their surprise, everyone had more than enough to eat, and in fact, when the meal was over, they donated leftovers to two orphanages.”
“Now, 53 years later, the ministries that began with that Christmas Day meal are continuing. There is a food bank, a medical clinic, a Montessori school, and four different sites, [and] catechism is taught to children using the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd method,” Baldacchino said.
Agreement among bishops
Following Baldacchino’s address, a number of bishops spoke up to share their agreement with his testimony.
Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, said he has personal friends who spent time at the ranch and said they “testify to having witnessed both his generosity, heroic life, but also the miracle of the multiplication of food.”
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, also said he is in favor of the cause. He said: “I think all of us in our work, we [have] moments where we heard of something or experienced something [and] we said: ‘That was a miracle.’ But someone like Father Thomas — it was miracles almost every day. His trust in God was so incredible.”
Auxiliary Bishop Peter Smith of Portland, Oregon, also detailed Thomas’ involvement in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and added that he was “a wonderful presence.”
“As was mentioned, miracles were regular in his ministry,” Smith said. Thomas “was always very joyful. Faith just radiated from him. You could just feel the presence of Christ in him.”
Vatican declares alleged apparitions of Jesus in France ‘not supernatural’
St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. / Credit: Xosema (CC BY-SA 4.0)
ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 12, 2025 / 14:54 pm (CNA).
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has declared that the alleged apparitions of Jesus in Dozulé, France, do not have an authentic divine origin and are therefore “not supernatural.”
The prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, confirmed the declaration based on the Norms for Discerning Alleged Supernatural Phenomena in a document released Nov. 12 and addressed to the bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, Jacques Habert.
In 1972, Madeleine Aumont claimed that Jesus had appeared to her, asking the Church to build a giant “glorious cross” in Dozulé, next to a “shrine of reconciliation.” Furthermore, the alleged visionary claimed that Jesus had announced his “imminent” return.
In the document, the Vatican authority notes that the alleged apparitions in the Normandy town “have elicited spiritual interest” but also “not a few controversies and difficulties of a doctrinal and pastoral nature” that require clarification.
Only the cross of Jerusalem is the universal sign of the Redemption
First, the DDF clarifies that it is erroneous to compare the “glorious cross” with the “cross of Jerusalem,” as Aumont did after the fifth alleged apparition. The Vatican says that “that wood, raised upon Calvary, has become the real sign of Christ’s sacrifice, which is unique and unrepeatable” and that any other “sign” of the cross “cannot be considered on the same plane.”
“To compare the cross requested at Dozulé with the cross of Jerusalem risks confusing the sign with the mystery and risks giving the impression that what Christ has accomplished once and for all could be ‘reproduced’ or ‘renewed’ in a physical sense,” the letter explains.
In this context, the declaration clarifies that the power of the cross “does not need to be replicated, for it is already present in every Eucharist, in every church, in every believer who lives united to the sacrifice of Christ.” Thus, it warns against the risk of fostering a “material sacrality” that does not belong to the heart of Christianity.
Fernández also cautioned against the risk of this cross becoming “a symbol of an autonomous message” and pointed out that “no cross, no relic, and no private apparition can replace the means of grace established by Christ” nor be considered a “universal obligation.”
The cardinal emphasized that the cross is not merely a religious ornament: It is a sign that speaks to the heart. “Those who wear the cross around their neck or keep it in their home proclaim, even without words, that the crucified Christ is the center of their life and that every joy and sorrow finds its meaning in him.”
Forgiveness comes from Christ
The letter emphasizes what it considers one of the most troubling claims: the reference to the “remission of sins” through contemplation of the Dozulé cross.
Aumont went so far as to claim: “All those who will have come to repent at the foot of ‘the glorious cross’ [of Dozulé] will be saved.”
The Vatican points out the theological error of these statements, which are “incompatible with the Catholic doctrine on salvation, grace, and the sacraments.” Fernández clarified that “no material object can replace sacramental grace” and that forgiveness comes from Christ through the sacrament of penance.
Regarding the ‘imminent return of Christ’
Regarding the warnings that Jesus allegedly revealed about his “imminent” return as the Risen One, Fernández pointed out that, although the return of Christ is a truth of faith, “no one can know or predict the precise date or its signs.”
Consequently, the declaration states that the Church “remains alert against millenarian or chronological interpretations, which risk setting the time or determining the modalities for the final judgment.”
“The danger of reducing Christian hope to an expectation of an imminent return with extraordinary events must be firmly avoided,” the text emphasizes.
With these clarifications, the DDF concludes that the phenomenon of the alleged apparitions in Dozulé “is to be regarded, definitively, as not supernatural in origin, with all the consequences that flow from this determination.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Meet the teens speaking to Pope Leo XIV at upcoming National Catholic Youth Conference
Ezequiel Ponce is among teens chosen to ask Pope Leo XIV questions at the National Catholic Youth Conference Nov. 21, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 12, 2025 / 14:24 pm (CNA).
A group of teens will speak with the Holy Father during a digital encounter at the upcoming National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) in Indianapolis.
Pope Leo XIV will hold a 45-minute digital encounter with young people from across the United States during the Nov. 20–22 NCYC, hosted by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM). The pope will speak at 10:15 a.m. ET on Nov. 21 and enter into dialogue with a group of high school students.
This marks the first time that a pope will directly engage with U.S. youth in a live digital encounter at NCYC. More than 40 teens have participated in the dialogue planning processs, and five of them will get the chance to speak directly with the Holy Father, organizers said.
Mia Smothers, Elise Wing, Christopher Pantelakis, Micah Alcisto, and Ezequiel Ponce will ask Pope Leo questions next week as thousands of teens gather in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Mia Smothers
Mia Smothers, a high school freshman from Joppa, Maryland, is the youngest teen selected to speak with the pontiff. Growing up in a large family has taught her patience and teamwork, she said. Her parents have encouraged her to stay grounded in faith and to serve others.
Smothers is the second of 10 children and said she hopes her faith and NCYC experience will set a good example for her younger siblings. She wants to show them how wonderful it is to know and love God.
As a parishioner at St. Francis De Sales, Smothers serves as an altar server and helps with Vacation Bible School and youth group. She also participates in cheer, choir, and Helping Hands Club at her school and enjoys reading, dancing, singing, and doodling.
Elise Wing
Elise Wing is a high school senior from Waterloo, Iowa, who says she enjoys nature and coffee.
Wing is usually busy with speech, theater, competitive swimming, and serving her parish community at St. Edward’s. She said she loves to have bonfires and game nights with friends and go on road trips with her family.
Her Catholic faith is the lens through which she sees the world, she said. She said she is inspired daily by St. Thérèse of Lisieux — her confirmation saint. Wing said she is looking forward to going on a pilgrimage to Rome, Florence, and Assisi in Italy this spring and is excited to represent faithful teens at NCYC next week.
Christopher Pantelakis
Christopher Pantelakis, or Chris, is a high school junior who was born and raised in Mesquite, Nevada. Pantelakis said he gets his inspiration from young people who go out in the world to make it a better place.
For fun, Chris said he loves watching sports and participating in any athletic activity. Recently his soccer team at Virgin Valley High School qualified for state. His favorite soccer team is Chelsea in England, which he hopes to watch play in person someday.
Micah Alcisto
Born and raised in Honolulu, Micah Alciso said he enjoys playing baseball, working out, fishing, and going to the beach. The high school senior is a leader in his community serving as a member of Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, LIFE team, and Catholic Honors Society.
Seeing how God continues to work in his life and in the lives of others inspires Alciso, he said. Even in hard times, he said experiences with God remind him he is not alone.
Keeping his faith strong and at the center of his life is important to Chris as he said he believes it will guide his career, relationships, education, and family.
Ezequiel Ponce
Ezequiel Ponce is a high school senior from Downey, California. He has a brother and sister who introduced him to St. Dominic Savio Parish, where he serves as a summer camp counselor and helps lead youth group.
Ponce said he sees his parish as his home and loves participating in the community and growing in his faith. He shares the same birthday as his favorite saint — St. John Bosco on Aug. 16.
Doing community work with kids led him to find a passion for teaching, he said. Ponce teaches at a middle school for one period of his school schedule every day.
Ponce, who will ask the pope a question, said in an Nov.11 interview with NFCYM that it is “an honor and a great privilege to … talk to the Holy Father.” He added: “It makes me feel like my voice is heard and … that the youth of America’s voice is heard.”
“It is very reassuring that the Holy Father wants to indulge in dialogue with the youth,” Ponce said.
Katie McGrady, Catholic author, speaker, and radio host who will serve as the NCYC event moderator, said: “As we’ve prepared these teens to ask a question of the Holy Father, I’ve been struck by how excited they are to get to represent their peers in this moment. Their openness to dialogue, with each other and with adults who have helped prepare this moment, has inspired me to remember that the young Church is the Church of now, not tomorrow.”
‘Catholic American Bible’ gets green light from U.S. bishops
null / Credit: joshimerbin/Shutterstock
Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 12, 2025 / 13:15 pm (CNA).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved a new translation of the Bible, which will be used for personal Bibles, the lectionary at Mass, and the text in the Liturgy of the Hours.
Bishop Steven Lopes, chair of the Committee on Divine Worship, announced the translation will be called the “Catholic American Bible.” The translation for personal Bibles and the Liturgy of the Hours will be available on Ash Wednesday in 2027.
The bishops have not announced when the revised lectionaries will be available.
The USCCB also approved a Spanish-language translation of the New Testament, the Biblia de la Iglesia en América, which will be available on Ash Wednesday in 2026.
Lopes made the announcement during the USCCB’s Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 11.
According to Ascension Press, one of the publishers of the translation, the Catholic American Bible has a modified translation of the Old Testament from the New American Bible Revised Edition. It will replace the current translation of the Book of Psalms with The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, which was translated by monks at Conception Abbey in Missouri.
The new translation will also include a revised New Testament.
U.S. bishops also approved a new edition of the Roman Pontifical, which is the liturgical book for pontifical Masses, which can only be celebrated by bishops. It is expected to be ready in 2027. The bishops are still awaiting Vatican approval for two of the five pontifical rites, but approval is anticipated in December.
Growth of Catholic-Jewish interfaith vision encouraged at Catholic University of America event
Carmelite Father Craig Morrison speaks on a panel about Jewish-Catholic relations at The Catholic University of America on Nov. 11, 2025. / Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA
Washington, D.C., Nov 12, 2025 / 12:45 pm (CNA).
Nostra Aetate, the Church’s declaration on building relationships with non-Christian religions, “planted a seed” that must continue to be nourished, according to panelists reflecting on the document’s legacy at The Catholic University of America on Nov. 11.
At the event, titled “The Church and the Jewish Community in Our Age,” Bishop Étienne Vetö, ICN, auxiliary bishop of Reims, France, and Rabbi Noam Marans, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, discussed the state of Catholic-Jewish relations as well as shared practices and difference.
“Even though Nostra Aetate is one of the shortest, if not the shortest document of Vatican II, it has had a powerful impact,” Vetö said. “A Jew or a Christian from the first half [of] the 20th century who traveled in time to 2025 would find unbelievable the quality of dialogue, understanding, and trust that is now growing between the two communities.”
Rebecca Cohen, program and research specialist for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, agreed, saying Nostra Aetate produced a “seismic shift in Christian understanding” of Judaism that was revolutionary for its time in 1965.
Nostra Aetate contains a paragraph on Judaism that centers on the biblical roots and shared history with Christianity rather than the Judaism of today. It sowed the beginnings of something that needs nurturing, Cohen said.
Carmelite Father Craig Morrison, director of the Center for Carmelite Studies and professor of biblical studies, said Nostra Aetate “launched new possibilities for a relationship between Catholics and Jews.”
“No longer was this relationship to be triumphal, Catholics telling Jews who they are, what they believe, and how they kill God, Jesus,” he said, adding: “Western Christianity kept the Jews mostly silent for centuries.”
Today, he continued, “our present task on the Catholic side is not so much as dialogue but rather to listen to the Jews for the first time in our shared history.”
“Our Gospels are a part of Jewish documents and cannot be properly understood apart from the Judaism of the late Second Temple period,” he said.
Ultimately, Craig said, “we know that a better understanding of the concerns of first-century Jews will illuminate the Gospels and significantly reduce the risk of anti-Jewish preaching. Then we will hear Jesus speaking within the first-century Jewish world in which he was incarnated.”
Marans reflected on the legacy of Nostra Aetate for Jewish people, saying that prior to the document’s publication, the Jewish people viewed Christianity “as a threat.” Conversely, he said, Nostra Aetate was a “gift for Christians” because it meant “Christianity no longer needed to self-define in opposition to the other.”
At the end of the day, Marans said, “Nostra Aetate was not perfect, but it was good [and] has been perfected over time.”
‘Miraculous touches of God’s presence’ in the most atheist nation in Europe
St. Nicholas Church in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. / Credit: Kirill Neiezhmakov/Shutterstock
ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 12, 2025 / 12:15 pm (CNA).
The Czech Republic, known for its historical heritage, fairytale castles, and medieval architecture, is considered the most atheist country in Europe.
Evangelization in this land — which still bears the scars of a past marked by communism and division — is a constant challenge but not an impossible goal. Czech missionaries say they perceive “miraculous touches of God’s presence” in a society increasingly thirsting for love and truth.
Approximately 80% of the Czech Republic’s more than 10.5 million inhabitants claim to have no religious affiliation. Although about a third of the population say they believe in God — in many cases without being linked to a specific denomination — only 9.4% identify as Catholic.
Nearly a quarter of Czechs declare themselves atheist, according to the 2017 Pew Survey on European Values, making the country one of the most secularized on the continent. Comparing census results since 1991 reveals a clear decline in church membership and an increase in personal belief in God without institutional affiliation.
‘Miraculous touches of God’s presence’
Brother Šimon Růžička, OFM, who is in charge of the Franciscan urban missions in the country, explained to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that the missionaries experience “miraculous touches of God’s presence,” reflected in a “deep thirst for love and, therefore, for God.”
“We also perceive how God touches people’s hearts, sometimes even long before they meet one of our missionaries,” he added.
For Father Daniel Vícha, vicar for pastoral care of the Diocese of Ostrava-Opava, evangelizing those who “know nothing about the faith” is not “so difficult” since, he noted, matters of faith “are usually a surprise” to them.
“The majority of the population declares themselves atheist, but at the same time, 70% say they believe in ‘something,’ and that is precisely where we must begin,” he said.
The priest told ACI Prensa that he encounters greater difficulties evangelizing those who have some notion of Christianity, for example, “because of history classes or reports about abuse” and that they “are usually more unreceptive.”
Růžička agreed with this statement and emphasized that it is more difficult “to be a prophet in your own home” and in the daily mission, in parishes, and among friends or family.
Atheism, a consequence of deep historical roots
The low number of Catholics in the country is due to several reasons. At the beginning of the 15th century, Protestant reformer Jan Hus — and the subsequent repression of his followers, the Hussites, by the Austro-Hungarian Empire — the Catholic Church has been associated in the collective memory with foreign power and imposition.
Furthermore, the aftermath of 40 years of communist persecution following World War II left “deep wounds in the local Church” that have not yet fully healed, according to the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
After the fall of communism, there was a brief religious resurgence, though more as a political reaction than a genuine conversion. Since then, religious affiliation has continued to decline, and faith in the Czech Republic today is characterized by individual spirituality without strong institutional ties.
Vícha explained that communism has played a significant role but “simply completed something” that was already deeply ingrained in Czech society.
“Four centuries of the nation being part of the Catholic Austrian monarchy fostered a negative predisposition toward faith,” he said.
Because of its strong sense of national identity, the priest explained, the Czech nation distanced itself from Catholicism, which was represented by the Austrian government.
“With such a varied history, it’s not surprising that Catholics make up less than 10% of the population. However, I see it as a miracle that the Church of Christ is a truly living organism, independent of worldly powers and human errors and failures, often including our own,” Růžička added.
The faith of the Czech people
Vicha emphasized that Czechs “are skeptical by nature” and that “before accepting something as their own, they need to reflect for themselves.”
This, according to the priest, is due to their location in central Europe, where “various schools of thought have alternated and the nation has had to think for itself about what is truly right. If a Czech person accepts a faith, it very often needs to be rationally justified,” he said.
The vicar for pastoral care underscored that believers “are no longer burdened by fear, as was the case during the communist era. If their faith is authentic, they are not ashamed of it and can talk about it with their peers.”
Conversely, if it is merely “a dead tradition” — as often happens in more religious areas — they prefer to abandon their faith “because it offers them nothing. They are very sensitive to any form of clericalism, superiority, or dogmatism,” Vícha said.
Růžička pointed out that young people receive the faith from their elders “with openness and new creativity,” and although they are sometimes “immersed in a sea of confusion and uncertainty,” he assured that “they are not satisfied with mere words, but seek and yearn for a true relationship with God.”
Challenges in the face of atheism
Vícha noted that although the Catholic Church is a minority in the country, it represents the strongest community in the religious sphere. “Due to historical experience, people do not seek faith within Christianity. For this reason, it is necessary for the Church to strive, above all, to be credible.”
For his part, Růžička identified the Church’s image in the world, which sometimes shows “a divided Church, worn down by material concerns,” as one of the main challenges.
Consequently, he said that a “living and spiritual Church” is necessary, one that loves the sinner but does not tolerate sin. A Church that does not judge but encourages and shows the way through its life and works. “That Church exists in our country, and I eagerly hope that it will grow and bear fruit.”
Increase in baptisms
Some 300,000 people regularly attend Sunday Mass, which is equivalent to a third of those who identify as Catholic. Last year, nearly 15,000 baptisms were administered (more than 12% of births), and adult baptisms reached 7%, the highest percentage since 1993.
Vícha confirmed that the Church is witnessing “an increase in the number of adults requesting baptism. But more and more believers are also dying due to old age. Therefore, the total number continues to decline, even though the number of catechumens is growing.”
Růžička noted with hope that in recent years “the number of people for whom this world without God has lost its meaning and who yearn for God has indeed increased. It depends on us if we know how to respond to that desire.”
For this reason, he “sincerely believes that in the future it will not be a matter of quantity but of quality.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.