Haiti bishop says gangs target Church as violence shuts parishes, schools
Bishop Joseph Gontrand Décoste of Jérémie, Haiti, detailed the ongoing violence in the nation and warned that the Church has become a target for gangs.
The Church is “the last remaining bulkhead — moral, ethical, spiritual, and prophetic,” he said. “That is why they want to eliminate us.”
Décoste told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), an international Catholic pastoral aid organization, that despite the widespread violence in the Caribbean nation, the Church remains hopeful.
“We keep praying, singing, and dancing. In Haiti we say: ‘As long as they haven’t cut off our head, we still have hope of wearing a hat.’ That is why we never lose hope,” he said.
The bishop thanked organizations working to offer aid to the nation. He said: “Your prayers sustain us enormously; without them we could not carry on. Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.”
Gang violence in the nation continues to rise with armed gangs controlling between 70% and 90% of the capital.
Amid the violence, in Port-au-Prince, 40 parishes have had to close, according to ACN. Schools and religious houses have also been attacked, burned, and seized.
Sister Paesie, a Catholic sister who operates an organization to aid children in Cité Soleil, Haiti, also highlighted the increasing violence.
The sister and her team at the Kizito Family, which runs homes, schools, and catechism programs, recently took in dozens more children following numerous recent attacks.
Sister Paesie told EWTN News that last week gangs attacked an area in Port-au-Prince where the organization operates one of its schools. Most of the population fled besides a few elderly people who were unable to, and most were killed.
“The parents began bringing children to us for shelter,” she told EWTN News. On Aug. 9, “we took in about 20” and “others came yesterday, and about 50 today.”
“The Missionaries of Charity accepted to take in the girls” and “we have the boys,” she said.
“Among them were four brothers [who] were alone when the attack took place. The parents had gone to work, and a cousin grabbed them and fled. When the father returned home, he was not aware of the attack. He was killed and burned. The mother did not show up … where the people took refuge,” she said.
Sister Paesie also detailed how the attacks and destruction have left organizations, many of them run by religious orders, unable to operate and provide aid to those in need.
She specifically noted a Missionaries of Charity convent that was attacked and burned down two years ago.
It remains "completely empty and the buildings destroyed,” she said. “It used to receive more than 2,000 patients every year.”
U.S. bishops urge protection for Haitian nationals on TPS
U.S. bishops have continuously warned of the unsafe conditions in Haiti, urging lawmakers to extend temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitian nationals living in the United States.
Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami has previously said that ending temporary residency protections for Haitians would be “sending people into a burning building.”
He said Haiti “remains a country on the brink,” noting the “widespread gang violence and kidnapping, a rampant cholera epidemic, and spreading food insecurity.”
“The lack of functioning state institutions has resulted in a general breakdown of security, with attacks on women and children becoming commonplace,” he said. “It would be an act of abject cruelty for the United States to send families back to such dangerous and unsafe conditions.”
Other Florida bishops, and many Ohio bishops, have also addressed the matter, calling for a more permanent solution to care for the refugees.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation in April, and the Senate has not acted on that measure or on a bill (S. 4814), which would require the Homeland Security secretary to designate Haiti for TPS through early 2029, giving eligible Haitian nationals in the United States protection from deportation and authorization to work while conditions in Haiti remain unsafe.
Texas court orders hospitals to provide lifesaving care to baby at center of surrogacy dispute
Two hospitals in Texas have been ordered to provide lifesaving care for a soon-to-be-born baby at the center of an interstate surrogacy dispute.
State Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office announced in an Aug. 11 press release that UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center of Dallas were legally obligated to care for Gabriel, a baby due to be born on Sept. 2 to surrogate mother McKenna West. A Texas district court had earlier ruled that the hospitals would be required to care for the baby.
In an earlier letter to the hospitals on Aug. 10, Paxton said Gabriel had been diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and that his “intended parents” said they would seek to “refuse consent” to an operation.
The parents, identified in court documents as Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, “may seek to move the child to California so that treatment can be withheld there,” the letter said.
West reportedly traveled to Texas from Alaska after Gilkar and Ahmed urged her to seek an abortion after the diagnosis of the syndrome, according to news reports. She allegedly offered to take full responsibility of the baby, though the baby’s biological parents reportedly refused.
In an emergency order dated Aug. 11, the Dallas district court ordered that upon birth the baby would be provided with “medically indicated stabilizing and life-sustaining care” at either of the hospitals.
The court also barred the child’s removal from either the hospitals or the state of Texas except as necessary for his medical care.
Paxton hailed the court’s order as “the right decision.”
“My office utilized every tool at our disposal to protect life, and we will not back down in continuing to support baby Gabriel’s well-being,” the prosecutor said. “Every child in our state deserves to be cared for and protected, and that’s exactly what I’ll fight for.”
‘A problem for the 13th Amendment’
Anthony Sirven, a Catholic Florida-based attorney who has published on the subject of surrogacy, told EWTN News that this case and others like it portend “whether we’re going to decide custody based on a contract.”
“The [surrogacy] contract is about a human life,” he said. “So the question is: How do you enforce a contract over a human life? The answer should be ‘you can’t’ because of the 13th and 14th Amendments.” The 13th Amendment outlawed slavery in the United States while the 14th Amendment enshrined equal protection and due process in the U.S. Constitution.
Early litigation surrounding in vitro fertilization and surrogacy had to walk a careful line, Sirven said, as Roe v. Wade had asserted that unborn children are not human persons, putting their legal status into uncertainty. Courts ultimately settled around the idea that embryos are “a special kind of property,” he said, allowing courts to enforce contract-based rights over them.
But the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision “overturned Roe and, arguably, every case that relied on Roe to recognize a property interest in human life,” he said, throwing years of precedent into uncertainty.
On the Texas case, “we’ll see what happens,” Sirven said. “If this child is born and given lifesaving care, the next question will become ‘Who’s going to take custody of him?’ If the ‘intended parents’ seek custody or other rights under a contract, and the court rules in their favor on the basis of a contract, then that’s a problem under both the 13th and 14th Amendments.”
Stefano Gennarini, the vice president for legal studies at the New York-based Center for Family and Human Rights, told EWTN News that “most lawyers” would agree it is “hard to predict a case like this.”
Gennarini said he was not an expert in either Texas or Alaskan family law, but he said international legal conventions — specifically the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — affirms “the human right of mothers and their children to receive special protections during pregnancy and after birth.”
“Allowing a third party to contractually decide what kind of treatment a surrogate mother can seek eviscerates these international protections,” he said. “Overall, this case illustrates how dangerous any form of surrogacy is.”
The practice of surrogacy, he said, “legally deconstructs the natural family as recognized in international law,” leading to what he described as “inhuman scenarios” such as that in Texas.
The order handed down in Texas takes effect on the event of Gabriel’s birth and “remains in effect until further order,” the court said.
Medicaid formally ends funds for ‘sex-rejecting procedures’ for minors with final rule
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it has implemented a final rule that formally bans using funds for “sex-rejecting procedures” for minors, which are drugs and surgeries used to facilitate “gender transitions.”
According to a CMS news release, this includes puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical operations. It states these medical procedures cause irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other physiological effects.
The move formalizes a policy of President Donald Trump’s administration to prevent minors from accessing these drugs and surgeries. In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order that instructed agencies to adopt rules to “end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”
The final rule includes a tapering-off period of up to six months for children who are receiving cross-sex hormones, which allows them to be gradually weaned off the medicine. It does not affect mental health services.
“Children deserve our protection, not experimental interventions that pose serious risks and convey no proven benefits,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in a statement.
“By cutting off federal funds for these sex-rejecting procedures, we’re following the science, saving taxpayer dollars, and, most importantly, protecting children from potentially irreversible harm so they can truly flourish,” he said.
Rachel N. Morrison, director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s Administrative State Accountability Project, told EWTN News that government funding should never support “harmful, sterilizing, and often irreversible sex-rejecting procedures.”
“I am grateful to CMS and the Trump administration for their efforts to combat gender ideology, protect children from the harms [of] sex-rejecting procedures, and advance policies that reflect a true understanding of the nature of the human person,” she said.
The Church’s position
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) referred EWTN News to a Feb. 17 letter to CMS, which said the proposed ban on federal funding “aligns with Catholic teaching on the nature of the human person” and “reflects true distinctions between the sexes.”
“Rejection of our God-given bodies, such as by modifying them to appear as the opposite sex, is a grave matter, and when done with full knowledge and complete consent, is a grave sin,” the letter states.
In November 2025, the USCCB published a new edition of its ”Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” guidelines, which prohibit Catholic institutions from providing treatments that “aim not to restore but rather to alter the fundamental order of the human body in its form or function” such as “interventions that aim to transform sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex (or to nullify sexual characteristics…).”
Joseph Meaney, past president and senior ethicist for the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), told EWTN News CMS “should be applauded for putting an end to federal taxpayer funding of transgender procedures on children.”
“There is substantial agreement between U.S. government policy and Catholic teaching in this area of healthcare policy,” he said.
Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, an NCBC senior ethicist, told EWTN News that the implementation of the rule “is very sensible and long overdue.”
“Countless youth have already been railroaded along this path, placing themselves at great risk and damaging their bodies as they struggle with this confusion,” Pacholczyk said. “Once a young person steps onto that train, they often become ‘regular business customers,’ with a lifelong dependence on the continued prescribing of hormones and additional cycles of expensive surgeries.”
He said tax money should not pay for “a hysterectomy on a girl who wants to live as a boy, nor to provide breast implants into a boy who thinks he is a girl.” He said children “deserve far better from the world of medicine and psychiatry.”
“They are entitled to solid psychotherapy as a means of assisting them to reintegrate their subjective gender identity with their objective lifelong biology so they can recognize and embrace the beautiful gift of the biological sex they have been endowed with from the beginning,” Pacholczyk said.
Last Chinese Trappist monk to survive Maoist persecution dies at 108
Father Benedict Chao, the worldʼs oldest Trappist monk and the last survivor of the community that suffered communist persecution in China, died at the age of 108 on July 31 in Lantau, Hong Kong.
The Order of Cistercians of Strict Observance reported that Chao was born in 1918 in Chengting, Hebei Province, China. He entered the monastery in Hebei in 1941, made his solemn profession in 1947, and was ordained a priest in 1949.
He lived as a monk for 79 years and as a priest for 77. His funeral is scheduled for Aug. 14.
According to AsiaNews, Chao also served for more than 20 years as superior of the Trappist community on Lantau.
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Persecuted by communists
In 1941, at the age of 23, Chau entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Joy, also known by its French name, “Liesse,” meaning “jubilation.”
According to AsiaNews, the monastery was occupied by Japanese troops in 1937 and several monks were imprisoned and killed.
However, the worst was yet to come when the Chinese dictator Mao Zedong took control of the region.
In 1947, the same year Chao made his solemn vows, the Abbey of Our Lady of Consolation in Yangjiaping was attacked. The monks were tortured and forced to leave the monastery.
A year later, six monks were executed by firing squad following a peopleʼs trial. Among them was 29-year-old Father Chrysostom Chang, the communityʼs sub-prior.
Those who were killed during the persecution are commemorated as the 33 martyrs of Yangjiaping, comprising 30 Chinese monks and three foreign religious, according to AsiaNews.
Exile and new monastery in Hong Kong
The Liesse community, where the young Chao was living, also came under attack, leaving the monks no choice but to seek refuge in another city.
As the persecution intensified, some monks were sent out of China. Among them was Chao, who arrived at the monastery of Notre-Dame-des-Prairies in Manitoba, Canada.
In 1951, the Xindu community also had to close due to communist persecution. The monks who had managed to leave China then began preparing to rebuild their community in Hong Kong.
With the support of the then-bishop of Hong Kong, Enrico Valtorta, a missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, the monks were granted a plot of land in the highlands of Lantau Island.
There, eight monks built the new monastery, which was inaugurated in 1956.
In 1999, the Cistercian order recognized the Lantau community as an autonomous abbey, and in January 2000, it reclaimed the name Abbey of Our Lady of Joy, the same name the community had in Hebei.
With Chao’s passing, the abbey bids farewell to the last survivor of that generation of Trappist monks who were persecuted by Mao but managed to reestablish a monastery in Hong Kong.
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.
Oklahoma Catholic parish launches medical‑debt relief effort to help families facing crushing bills
St. Eugene Catholic Church in Oklahoma City is challenging parishes across the country to follow its example after helping abolish more than $6.5 million in medical debt through a partnership with a nonprofit organization.
Father Jim Goins read about the “scourge of medical debt in the country” and decided to do something. About 20 million people — nearly 1 in 12 adults — owe medical debt, and federal data shows Americans owe at least $220 billion in unpaid medical bills, according to the Peterson‑KFF Health System Tracker, an independent project of the Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF that analyzes U.S. healthcare spending.
“It haunts people, haunts their credit reports,” Goins told EWTN News. “So I was also praying about that biblical concept of the year of favor, the year of favor from the Lord, how that debts were to be forgiven. Those who were in debt bondage were to be redeemed in that year of favor. Christ, of course, is the year of favor for us. But I wanted to do something on the parish level to address the problem.”
Goins discussed the matter with his parish administrator, Sharon Blakely, who located the nonprofit organization Undue Medical Debt, which uses donated dollars to purchase bundles of unpaid medical debt at a fraction of the price from hospitals, health systems, and debt collectors.
Daniel Lempert, Undue’s vice president of communications, told EWTN News: “We purchase these debts for pennies on the dollar. We’re able to buy these debts so cheaply because they belong to those who are least able to pay — a sign of how broken our healthcare system is.”
“My target, my goal, was $10,000 from my parish. I asked them for $10,000. We did 10-bucks Sundays,” Goins said. “Everyone throw in 10 bucks, and weʼll try to raise this money. It caught fire and they gave us $25,000. So when all was said and done, we were instrumental in abolishing over $6.5 million in medical debt here in central Oklahoma in four counties.”
Lempert said: “The amount we pay reflects their value on the existing debt market. The difference is that we flip that market on its head for good and never collect a single penny.”
“On average, $1 donated abolishes about $100 of medical debt. Thatʼs what allowed St. Eugeneʼs $25,000 gift to erase over $6.5 million,” Lempert said about the partnership first reported by local outlet KFOR News.
Blakely said the parish organized the fundraiser around the Fourth of July holiday, calling it “250 years of America, let’s do a freedom from medical debt fundraising thing for the Fourth of July.”
She said parishioners responded fervently to the idea, sending in donations well after the deadline set at the end of June. “Weʼve had so many parishioners reach out to us telling us how there have been times in their lives where this could have like, totally, like saved them.”
“We want to challenge anybody, like anyone, to beat us,” Blakely said, calling for parishes across the country to make abolishing medical debt “a friendly competition.”
“Beat us, and then when we do it again next summer, weʼll try to beat you and letʼs just try to get rid of medical debt,” she said. “When we all help each other, itʼs really easy to get along in this world when weʼre all together.”
Goins echoed Blakely, adding that if parishes around the country would partner with nonprofits like Undue, the amount of debt that could be abolished would be “staggering.”
“I told our crowds, you know, that weʼre all just one ER visit away from a medical debt. It could happen to any one of us. Any one of us could be bankrupted by medical debt,” he said. “It has nothing to do with your character, it has nothing to do whether youʼre a hard worker or not, whether youʼre industrious, whether you save or not. It just happens and it ruins peopleʼs lives. So that struck a chord.”
EWTN News explains: Canon law and how it applies to Catholics
Pope Leo XIV is a pope of several firsts: the first American pope, the first to be an Augustinian, and the first in modern times to have done overseas missionary work.
He is also the first pontiff in nearly 50 years to have studied and worked as a canon lawyer, holding a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome.
During his papacy, canon law has featured in some of the most important events of his reign. From the excommunication of four bishops consecrated for the SSPX to his recent appointments as Vatican judges, to the Marko Rupnik trial to his curial appointments, canon law has become a key aspect of understanding Leo’s pontificate.
However, for many Catholics, canon law is more than merely a feature of Vatican administration. It is important to Catholics' relationship with the Church, especially in upholding justice — the very purpose of canon law.
Marriages, eligibility to receive the sacraments, and the allocation of Church property are among the most basic, often overlooked, uses of canon law.
Here are some important things to know about canon law and how it applies to Catholics.
What is canon law?
Canon law is the collection of all the laws that regulate the life of the Church. The word canon itself comes from the Greek word “kanōn,” which means to measure. Unlike civil law, however, canon law exists to uphold spiritual discipline, maintain relationships between the laity and the Church hierarchy, and protect rights. Ultimately, as stated in the 1983 code, the purpose of all Church laws is the salvation of souls.
Among the oldest legal systems
The Catholic Church’s canon law system is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West. The Church’s earliest laws were issued as decrees, or canons, by ecumenical councils, regulating the Church’s daily life. After Christianity became more established in the Roman Empire, the popes also issued decrees influenced by Roman legal theory and traditions. By the 12th century, it had developed into a fully functioning legal system and has governed the Church ever since.
How does canon law affect Catholics?
Primarily, canon law contains rules about who can receive the sacraments. For example, the requirement to say “I baptize you” instead of “We baptize you” during baptism, the prohibition against using grape juice for holy Communion, and the seal of confession are all regulated by canon law.
Marriage annulments — the determination of whether a marriage is valid — are among its most common applications.
The 1983 code — a Catholic ‘Bill of Rights’
Before the 20th century, the Church did not have a single legal code governing all Catholics. That changed when St. Pius X ordered a compilation of all Church laws into a single code, completed in 1917 by Pope Benedict XV. In 1983, St. John Paul II revised the code to incorporate the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. The 1983 Code of Canon Law — the current code in use — heavily emphasizes the rights and duties of laity and clergy, stating that “there exists among all the Christian faithful a true equality regarding dignity and action.”
‘Civil law punishes; canon law heals’
The quote “Civil law punishes; canon law heals” from 12th-century Byzantine canonist Theodore Balsamon highlights the distinct purposes of civil and canon law. Whereas civil law exists to maintain social order, canon law exists to facilitate salvation.
Officials are elected to uphold society’s rules, while the pope — as the Church’s supreme legislator — appoints bishops to dioceses to not only uphold Church law but also to teach, govern, and sanctify, as stated in paragraph 21 of Lumen Gentium, the dogmatic constitution on the Church.
Moreover, a diocesan bishop, according to canon 391 of the 1983 code, has “legislative, executive, and judicial power” over his diocese, meaning he can establish diocesan laws. Daily judicial matters of the diocese are usually handled by its tribunal, especially cases involving marriage, parish property, and abusive clergy.
The Church sometimes defers to civil law in nonreligious matters, such as contracts, labor laws, and certain criminal cases. For cases of clerical sexual abuse, however, the Church may conduct a separate internal canonical investigation, which could lead to restrictions on ministry or even dismissal from the clerical state.
How to become a canon lawyer
Clergy and laity worldwide study each year to practice canon law in the Church. To become a canon lawyer, usually one must first earn a licentiate of canon law (JCL). Before 1979, canonical studies were largely limited to clergy. Now, with adequate philosophical and theological education, any priest or layperson can be admitted to the licentiate program. Some of the most renowned schools for canon law are The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, both in Rome.
The role of the Vatican
The Holy See supervises all Church tribunals primarily through the Apostolic Signatura — the Church’s highest court. Every diocese has a tribunal (court), and the Signatura oversees them on behalf of the pope, who is the Church’s supreme judge. There are two other Vatican courts: the Roman Rota, which mainly handles appeals in marriage cases, and the Apostolic Penitentiary, which deals with indulgences and certain absolutions from sin reserved to the Holy See.
The Eastern churches have their own code
A separate code of canon law governs the more than 20 Eastern Churches in communion with Rome, including the Maronite, Ukrainian Greek Catholic, and Chaldean Catholic Churches. The Second Vatican Council affirmed the right of the Eastern churches to preserve their own traditions, including their legal traditions. St. John Paul II issued a code for those churches in 1990, reflecting the diversity of the Church’s legal customs. Its full title is the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
Leo’s experience as a canon lawyer
Before becoming pope, Leo spent more than a decade studying and practicing as a canon lawyer. The then-Father Robert Prevost studied canon law at the Angelicum in Rome, earning a license in 1984 and a doctorate in 1987. During his missionary work in Peru, he taught canon law at the seminary level and served as a judge. His experience would serve him during his leadership of the Augustinians and as the head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops.
During his papacy so far, Leo has chosen some of his collaborators within the Roman Curia for their legal experience, highlighting the importance of canon law for protecting the rights of the faithful and assisting them toward salvation.
Pope Leo XIV: Women and men in religious life ‘are called to become experts in synodality’
Pope Leo XIV highlighted religious women’s and men’s work making “the mission and mystery of the Church visible in our world.”
“All Christians are called to be builders of Christʼs communion, formed in a synodal Church in which everyone cooperates in the same mission according to their own charism and ministry,” he said during the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’ (LCWR) 70th anniversary celebration being held in Orlando, Florida, Aug. 11–14.
“In a special way, those in religious life are called to become experts in synodality due to the opportunities afforded by community life to practice it, as well as the very way that your congregations are organized,” he said.
The celebration, part of the group’s 2026 annual assembly, brings together women religious from Canada, the United States, and Latin America to foster fellowship and honor decades of ministry.
“Even though you come from communities with different histories and apostolates, it is important to remember the need to foster unity within and among your institutes as well as in the broader Church,” the pope said.
The gathering features numerous talks from religious women, reflections, and time in prayer and adoration.
The Holy Father further highlighted synodality in his message, sharing he “was pleased to learn that the assemblyʼs proceedings will include a synodal method of listening, discussion, and discernment, with an openness and a willingness to understand what others are saying.”
‘The Church needs you’
The Holy Father further expressed his gratitude for “the long-standing contributions” of religious institutions, highlighting their work in “the fields of evangelization, education, and caring for the poor and marginalized.”
“As you reflect on your theme of ‘Many Charisms, One Spirit, One Call,’ I pray that you will especially keep in mind the specific charisms entrusted by God to the founders and foundresses of your respective communities,” he said,
“The Church needs you and all of the diversity and richness of the forms of consecration and ministry that you represent, for with your vitality and the witness of a life centered on Jesus, you can contribute to waking up the world,” he said.
The Church needs you and all of the diversity and richness of the forms of consecration and ministry that you represent, for with your vitality and the witness of a life centered on Jesus, you can contribute to waking up the world.”
Pope Leo XIV
The Holy Father detailed that fostering religious vocations is of “vital importance.”
“Today, despite the increasing phenomenon of secularization in the world, there is also a growing hunger for God. Indeed, as I recently observed on my apostolic journey to Spain, ‘Many young people and adults are rediscovering the Christian faith, sometimes after having drifted away from God over a period of time,’” he said.
In conversation with young people, the Holy Father called on religious women and men “to seek ways to introduce them to your way of life and help them to hear the voice of the Lord, who speaks to us in the depths of our hearts.”
“Encourage them to be courageous in responding to Jesus, who is never outdone in generosity, so that they too may share the joy that comes from following his call,” he said.
Pope Leo concluded wishing the group “a fruitful gathering” and entrusted their work to the maternal protection of Mary, Mother of the Church.
Pakistani Christians rally for equal rights
Thousands of Christians in Pakistan marked National Minorities Day on Aug. 11 with protest rallies in three major Pakistani cities, calling for constitutional equality and religious freedom and urging the government to move beyond ceremonial celebrations to address long-standing discrimination.
In Karachi, more than 2,000 protesters gathered at the mausoleum of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, carrying placards reading “My religion, my will” and featuring photographs of victims of mob lynchings, forced conversions, blasphemy-related attacks, and assassinated Christian leaders.
“Young people are saying: ‘We shall snatch our freedom,’” Luke Victor, organizer of the Minority Rights March, told EWTN News.
Addressing the rally, speakers demanded an end to faith-based discrimination and violent extremism against religious minorities and called for changes to constitutional provisions they say deny minorities equal access to public office.
Victor said protesters wanted Articles 41 and 91 of the constitution amended to allow minorities to become president or prime minister on merit.
The Minority Rights March’s 11-point charter called for stronger political representation, curriculum reforms, protection of minority property and worship places, safeguards against blasphemy-law abuse, and independent national and provincial minority rights commissions.
The groups said rising violence, discrimination, and attacks on minorities had fueled fear and insecurity, particularly among young people.
Official ceremonies
While activists took to the streets, the government marked the day with official ceremonies promoting religious freedom, equality, and interfaith harmony.
In Lahore, the Punjab government organized a weeklong program beginning Aug. 7 with an interfaith rally, cultural competitions, and welfare camps. Karachi and Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, also hosted official programs highlighting the contributions and rights of religious minorities.
Minority activists said such events should be accompanied by concrete legal and institutional reforms.
Aug. 11 was declared National Minorities Day in 2009 following a campaign led by Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s first Catholic federal minister for minorities and a prominent advocate for religious freedom.
Bhatti was assassinated outside his Islamabad home in March 2011. Two gunmen sprayed his car with bullets before leaving pamphlets describing him as a Christian “infidel.”
In his Minorities Day message, President Asif Ali Zardari recalled Jinnah’s Aug. 11, 1947, address to the Constituent Assembly in which the country’s founder said citizens were free to worship according to their religion and that religion, caste, and creed should have no bearing on the affairs of the state.
Faisalabad rally
In Faisalabad, Catholic lawyer Akmal Bhatti, a nephew of Shahbaz Bhatti, led a rally calling for greater protection of freedom of religion and belief.
Participants demanded a ban on the forced conversion of minors, a 5% quota for minorities in public services and educational institutions, direct elections for reserved seats, removal of religious qualifications for the president and prime minister, and the creation of a constitutional National Minority Rights Commission.
They also criticized the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, which oversees the National Commission for Minorities, saying the commission has remained dysfunctional since completing its three-year term in May 2023.
Archbishop’s appeal
Archbishop Joseph Arshad of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, in his Aug. 11 message, called for the protection of constitutional rights, religious freedom, and equality.
“Providing all citizens equal rights and equal opportunities for development without discrimination on the basis of religion or belief is a national responsibility,” he said, urging collective efforts to eliminate hatred, prejudice, and intolerance.
He recalled Jinnah’s emphasis on equal rights and religious freedom, saying the principles must be implemented “in their true spirit.”
Non-Muslims accounted for about 14.2% of Pakistan’s population in the country’s first census in 1951. According to the 2023 Population and Housing Census, non-Muslims now constitute roughly 3.5% of the country’s population of about 247.5 million.
Pakistan’s religious minorities include Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmadis, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, and followers of the Indigenous Kalash faith.
Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki joins doctors, nursing home in suit against Illinois suicide law
The bishop of Springfield, Illinois, is joining a Lutheran nursing home and a group of doctors to sue the state over its assisted suicide law, with the coalition arguing that the state’s suicide regime abandons “nearly two millennia of medical practice” while requiring objectors to participate in it.
The suit, brought in U.S. District Court by Bishop Thomas Paprocki, the Lutheran Care Center, and four Illinois-based doctors, argues that the Illinois “End-of-Life Options” law requires doctors to participate in helping patients kill themselves even if they conscientiously object to doing so.
“Health care entities,” meanwhile, must promote the “benefits” of the suicide law to patients even if they object to doing so, the suit says; those providers are also required to allow on-site practitioners to facilitate patient access to assisted suicide.
The lawsuit argues that both the doctors and the Lutheran nursing facility “[cannot] in good conscience comply” with the law. The suit also says that Paprocki is obligated to uphold the U.S. bishops’ Catholic health service directives that forbid Catholic health facilities from participating in assisted suicide.
In a press release from the Thomas More Society, which is representing the plaintiffs in the suit, Paprocki said Catholic healthcare is meant to advance “the healing work of Christ” and “affirm the God-given dignity of every human life.”
The state’s assisted suicide law “undermines that mission by forcing Catholic hospitals and those who serve in them to push death onto their most vulnerable patients,” the bishop said.
“We must be free to serve the sick and the dying according to our faith, not according to the state’s mandate,” he added.
Mary Keen, one of the physicians in the suit, said the state’s requirement for doctors to facilitate assisted suicide “violates everything I know as a health care professional, as well as my deeply held Catholic convictions on the dignity of every human life.”
“As a doctor, I have a responsibility to meet my patients’ existential pain with loving accompaniment, not with abandonment,” she said.
This is not the first lawsuit brought by Catholic objectors against an assisted suicide law in the U.S. In July, Rockville Centre Bishop John Barres and four communities of religious sisters filed a lawsuit against New York’s assisted suicide law, arguing the measure would force them to participate in helping patients kill themselves.
The state subsequently agreed not to force the sisters to participate in the suicide program while their lawsuit proceeds. The suicide law went into effect on Aug. 5.
Pope Leo XIV: Attendance at Sunday Mass cannot be replaced by virtual participation
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV has urged Catholics to prioritize attending Sunday Mass, warning that active participation in the Eucharist cannot be replaced by virtual gatherings.
“I urge everyone to seek the best possible conditions so that even those who are unable to take time off work on Sundays may take part in holy Mass,” Leo said.
In his address during his general audience at the Vatican on Aug. 12, the pontiff continued his catechesis on the Second Vatican Council’s constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.
As on Aug. 5, his general audience was held inside St. Peter’s Basilica due to Rome’s high summer temperatures.
The liturgical year according to Pius XII and Prosper Guéranger
Leo explained the importance of the liturgical year, referencing his predecessor Venerable Pope Pius XII as well as Servant of God Abbot Prosper Guéranger, OSB, the first abbot of Solesmes Abbey in France and a key figure in the liturgical movement.
It is “important to note that this way of referring to the cycle of Christian feasts as the ‘liturgical year’ became widespread in ecclesiastical language thanks to the work of the Servant of God Abbot Prosper Guéranger,” Leo said in his remarks.
The pope also stressed that the liturgical year is not merely a remembrance of past events but, as Pius XII wrote in his encyclical Mediator Dei, “Christ himself, who is ever living in his Church.”
“The liturgical year should thus be understood as a constant renewal of the work of salvation which Christ accomplishes in history,” the pope said. “As she journeys through this temporal cycle, the Church remains in contact with the Lord’s redemptive action, so that all the faithful may be filled with his grace.”
The importance of Sunday Mass
Leo also explained that the Church has always regarded Sunday as a weekly celebration of Christ’s resurrection: the “dies Domini” (“the Lord’s day”).
He urged Catholics to attend Sunday Mass and warned against using virtual gatherings to substitute for in-person attendance.
“To sanctify Sunday, it is essential to celebrate the Eucharist,” Leo said. “This
assembly cannot be substituted by a solely virtual presence, nor can it be reduced to a merely passive gathering.”
“The liturgical assembly is in fact fulfilled through the active participation of brothers and sisters,” Leo added.
Leo’s continued closeness to Colombia amid earthquake
The pope again expressed his spiritual closeness to the victims of a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on Aug. 10, which has killed at least 250 people, according to reports.
“As I pray to the Lord for the eternal rest of those who have died, I assure their families and those affected by this tragedy of my prayers. I express my gratitude to all those working in rescue and assistance efforts for those affected,” Leo said in Spanish.
The previous day, Aug. 11, the pope sent a telegram through Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin expressing his sorrow upon learning of the earthquake.