Pope Leo XIV: God ‘cannot be enlisted by darkness’
Pope Leo XIV said Sunday that God cannot be used to justify violence or war, warning that “God cannot be enlisted by darkness.”
The pope made the remarks March 15 during a pastoral visit to the Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Ponte Mammolo, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Rome, where he celebrated Mass on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, known as Laetare Sunday.
Before the Mass, Leo XIV met with various parish groups, including children, young people, families, the sick, the elderly, and the poor assisted by volunteers from Caritas, the Catholic Church’s charitable aid network, and the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Rome-based Catholic lay community known for its service to the poor and peacemaking efforts.
In his homily, the pope reflected on the suffering caused by armed conflicts around the world.
“Many of our brothers and sisters today suffer because of violent conflicts, caused by the absurd claim that problems and differences can be resolved with war,” he said. “Instead, we must tirelessly pursue dialogue for peace.”
“Some even claim to involve the name of God in these choices of death,” the pope continued. “But God cannot be enlisted by darkness. Rather, he always comes to give light, hope, and peace to humanity — and it is peace that those who invoke him must seek.”
Reflecting on the Gospel story of the man born blind, Leo XIV said the passage teaches believers to see others with the eyes of God.
To see in this way, he said, means overcoming prejudice — especially the tendency to look at someone who suffers “only as an outcast to be despised or a problem to be avoided,” retreating into “the fortified tower of selfish individualism.”
Jesus, by contrast, looks at the blind man with love, “not as an inferior being or a nuisance, but as a person who is dear and in need of help,” the pope said.
By healing him, Jesus reveals his divine power and restores the man’s dignity as a creature made in the image and likeness of God. Having regained his sight, the man becomes “a witness to the light,” the pope said.
Leo XIV also warned of another form of blindness — the refusal to recognize God’s presence.
Those who accused Jesus and the healed man, he said, showed a deeper blindness: failing to see “right before them the face of God,” preferring instead the sterile security of rigid legalism.
“Jesus does not stop before such obstinacy,” the pope said, showing that “there is no Sabbath that can hinder an act of love.”
The pope also urged Christians to examine their own lives.
“We too can be blind when we fail to notice others and their problems,” he said. The first Christian community, he added, understood the call to live differently — sharing their goods, persevering in prayer, and living in communion and peace despite trials.
Addressing the parish community directly, Leo XIV praised its outreach to the poor and marginalized, including its attention to inmates at the nearby Rebibbia prison and its efforts to assist migrants with learning the language, finding housing, and securing stable employment.
He also commended the parish’s charitable initiatives, including family homes that welcome women and mothers in difficulty.
The pope concluded by encouraging the faithful to continue nurturing the “gift of light” entrusted to them through prayer, the sacraments, and charity.
“Let it grow within you and among you in all its gentleness,” he said, “and spread it throughout the world.”
Earlier, greeting children and young people, the pope also addressed parishioners who could not enter the church because of limited space, telling them that a vibrant parish community can be a sign of hope even in places marked by hardship.
“We who believe in Jesus Christ and live as brothers and sisters united can be a sign of hope in a world where these signs are often lacking,” he said. “In Jesus Christ there is salvation, and we want to live, receive, and share this great love that the Lord offers us.”
This article was originally published by ACI Stampa, EWTN News’ Italian-language news partner, and has been adapted by EWTN News.
Pope urges ceasefire in Middle East
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday urged those responsible for the escalating war in the Middle East to declare a ceasefire and open paths of dialogue, warning that violence can never lead to justice or peace.
“In the name of the Christians of the Middle East and of all women and men of goodwill, I address those responsible for this conflict: Let the fire cease and let paths of dialogue be reopened,” the pope said after praying the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
The appeal came amid continuing regional tensions and exchanges of attacks in the Middle East. Earlier Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC that Iran is seeking a ceasefire agreement to end U.S. and Israeli bombing, though he said he is not prepared to accept the proposal for now because the “terms are not good enough yet.”
Israel also struck targets in Lebanon, where at least 14 people were reported killed, including four minors. Pope Leo described the situation in the country as “a cause for great concern.”
“I hope that paths of dialogue will open that can help the authorities of the country implement lasting solutions to the serious crisis underway, for the common good of all Lebanese,” he said.
The pope noted that for the past two weeks the peoples of the Middle East have been suffering “the atrocious violence of war.”
“Thousands of innocent people have been killed and many others have been forced to abandon their homes,” he said, expressing his prayerful closeness to those who have lost loved ones in attacks on schools, hospitals, and residential areas.
“Violence will never lead to the justice, stability, or peace that peoples hope for,” he added.
‘Faith is not a renunciation of reason’
Earlier during the Angelus reflection, Pope Leo emphasized that Christian faith does not require abandoning reason but instead allows believers to see reality more clearly.
Reflecting on the Gospel account of the healing of the man born blind (John 9:1–41), the pope said the episode reveals the deeper meaning of salvation.
“While humanity walked in darkness, God sent his Son as the light of the world to open the eyes of the blind and illuminate our lives,” he said.
The pope stressed that faith “is not a blind act,” nor “a renunciation of reason,” nor a conviction that turns believers away from the world.
Rather, he explained, “faith helps us to look from the point of view of Jesus, with his eyes.”
“It is a participation in his way of seeing,” he said, quoting Lumen Fidei, the first encyclical of Pope Francis.
For this reason, Christians are called to open their eyes to the suffering of others and to the wounds of the world.
The Gospel, the pope said, contradicts the idea — widespread for centuries and still present today — that faith is a “leap into darkness.”
“On the contrary, the Gospel tells us that in contact with Christ the eyes are opened,” he said.
Pope Leo added that the Gospel invites believers to view the world with Christ’s eyes and not remain indifferent to human suffering.
“Today, in particular, faced with the many questions of the human heart and the dramatic situations of injustice, violence, and suffering that mark our time, there is a need for an awake, attentive, and prophetic faith,” he said.
Such faith, he explained, “opens our eyes to the darkness of the world and brings there the light of the Gospel through a commitment to peace, justice, and solidarity.”
The pope concluded by encouraging Christians to live a “Christianity with open eyes,” with simplicity and courage.
“Brothers and sisters, we too, healed by the love of Christ, are called to live a Christianity with open eyes,” he said.
This story was first published in two parts by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Preacher of the Papal Household: ‘Fraternity is where true conversion takes place’
Preacher of the Papal Household Father Roberto Pasolini continued on March 13 with the second Lenten homily, inspired by the conversion of St. Francis of Assisi and titled “If Anyone Is in Christ, He Is a New Creation: Conversion to the Gospel According to St. Francis.”
Before Pope Leo XIV and members of the Roman Curia gathered in the Paul VI Audience Hall, the Capuchin friar meditated on fraternity, referring to it as both a gift and a “serious and urgent” responsibility — especially in a society marked by division.
In his sermon reported by Vatican News, Pasolini explained that conversion is truly realized within fraternity, describing it as “the most eloquent sign of what the Gospel can accomplish in our lives.”
He also exhorted his listeners to “go beyond” and to view our brothers and sisters not merely as a source of support or sustenance but as someone entrusted to us “so that our lives may change.”
In this context, Pasolini emphasized that brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, do not merely serve to confirm “what we are” but rather call us to a true transformation: “They become the concrete space in which God works on our humanity, loosening our rigidities and teaching us to live with a truer heart, one more capable of love.”
In light of the biblical account of Cain and Abel, the preacher to the papal household noted that a rift between brothers stems “from a problem of perspective” and urged the pope and the Roman Curia to ask themselves “who is Cain within us” and how much space resentment occupies.
He also recalled that, for St. Francis, fraternity is an opportunity “to learn the merciful logic of the Gospel toward a neighbor who makes mistakes.”
“When relationships crack and communion is wounded,” Pasolini noted, “the Gospel does not first suggest defending one’s own rights. Instead, it urges seeking the greatest and always possible good: the good that allows us to recognize in the other no longer an adversary or a debtor but a brother loved by the Lord,” he affirmed.
Pasolini thus invited his audience to focus on the conversion that arises “precisely from what others do to us, even when they hurt us or put us to the test,” and, for this reason, “we must never lose sight of the horizon” or the perspective of eternal life.
“Faith does not separate but reminds us that no one can be excluded from our hearts,” he remarked.
By way of conclusion, Pasolini noted that, amid the divisions, wars, and conflicts of the present day, Christians “cannot limit ourselves to speaking of fraternity as an ideal to be achieved.”
“We are called to receive it as a gift, and, at the same time,” he urged, “to take it on as a very serious and urgent responsibility.”
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.
Ave Maria University to send first student group to new Ireland campus at former abbey
Ave Maria University in Florida is setting out to make its students a fixture in the historically Catholic community surrounding Mount Melleray Abbey in County Waterford, Ireland.
“We are not here to give our students a cultural exchange; we’re here to have a campus that is steeped both in our culture and the tradition of Ireland,” Daniel Schreck, chief strategy officer for Ave Maria University, told EWTN News.
“That means understanding the people of Ireland, County Waterford, the town of Cappoquin, and the Cistercian order,” he said. “I think that’s how you really make this a permanent home and not just a building we’re coming to once a semester with our given cohort of students.”
Ave Maria University acquired the abbey after it closed in January 2025, prompted by dwindling numbers among the Cistercian community, which announced its plans to consolidate with monks from St. Joseph Abbey in Roscrea and Mellifont Abbey in Louth in December 2024.
Ave Maria plans to bring its first cohort of 100 students to the abbey for the fall 2026 semester. The university had a launch event for the campus earlier this year, which Schreck said was attended by roughly 500 students, and saw 300 applications to the program. The university has accepted 150 so far and hopes one day to accept Irish students as well.
Schreck appeared on “EWTN News Nightly” on March 5.
An American liberal arts encounter with Irish tradition
“The program will be a sort of encounter between the charisms and liberal arts curriculum at Ave Maria University, and the practices and charisms of the Cistercian community,” Mount Melleray Campus Executive Director Samuel Shephard told EWTN News.
Students who participate in the program will take classes from Ave Maria’s liberal arts core curriculum of theology, philosophy, and science, as well as Ireland-specific courses, including Irish language courses, Irish Church history, and a course on Irish saints and their holy places.
In addition to their studies, Shephard said, students will live the Cistercian tradition of not only study but also work and prayer. The university is planning to rehabilitate the monastery’s farm so students can work on it. Shephard said he hopes to have animals on the land again and restore the abbey’s workshops.
The campus will have a live-in priest, either from the university or the local diocese, and students will have access to two Masses per day as well as adoration, confession, and hopefully, Shephard said, Cistercian chant.
“One thing I find so wonderful is [the Cistercians] make a vow of stability,” Shephard said. “They’re really focused on this rhythm of life in a particular place. So that’s one of the things we love to jump into, is that real sense of place, and history, and prayer.”
Maintaining a local ‘beacon of faith’
Shephard, who is originally from Ireland, emphasized the monastery’s historic importance as “a beacon of faith” to the town of Cappoquin. “It was very sad for them [when] the monks moved out,” he said of the local community. “Now that they know another authentic Catholic institution is coming back, and that we’re going to embrace that history, they seem to be generally very excited about the project.”
The abbey was first established in 1832 by a group of Cistercian monks who were expelled from France during the French Revolution. “The townspeople of Cappoquin built Mount Melleray by hand, and so did the Cistercians,” Schreck said. “So, it’s important for the people of Ireland and our students who go there and for Americans reading this article to realize we’re part of that continuity of the faith that’s happened there in that county in Ireland.”
Shephard also noted the shop, café, and pilgrim’s hostel located on the campus will remain open to those traveling along the Declan’s Way pilgrimage that runs through the property. “For us is very symbolic that there’s still this very public statement and purpose of Mount Melleray, even well beyond our students studying there,” he said regarding the pilgrimage.
“We’re going to keep those open, but not in a proselytizing manner, just in the quiet friendship, ‘come and see’ type of quiet,” he said: “Come and see what we’re doing, come and meet the students, come and go to Mass. Just keep that Cistercian tradition of welcome.”
A hope for vocations
One aspect Schreck said is close to the hearts of Ave Maria University President Mark Middendorf and the university’s founder and chancellor, Tom Monaghan, is vocational discernment.
Schreck emphasized that students will be encouraged to discern their vocations more clearly while studying at the Ireland campus, with limited Wi-Fi access, opportunities for silent retreats, and a prohibition on inter-visitation between men and women’s dorms.
Ultimately, he said, “we hope this benefits the Cistercians because part of the reason the Cistercians have now moved from Mount Melleray is because there weren’t enough vocations.”
“We feel like bringing 200 students per year, and in their case, 100 young men per year that believe in the Catholic Church and are happy and are smart, I’m sure we’ll get a few vocations for them each year,” Shephard said.
Pope Leo XIV to move into papal apartment of Apostolic Palace
Pope Leo XIV on March 14 took possession of the traditional papal apartment within the Apostolic Palace, moving into the quarters traditionally reserved for his predecessors.
The move was announced on March 14 by the Holy See Press Office, more than 10 months after Leo’s election.
The Holy Father had been staying at an apartment at the Palace of the Holy Office but will now reside in what has long served as the home of the reigning pontiff. The custom was discontinued in March 2013 by Pope Francis, who chose to reside at Casa Santa Marta from the beginning of his pontificate.
Pope Leo XIV has also reinstated the papal tradition of staying at the summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. In the summer of 2025 the pope stayed at Villa Barberini; subsequently, he decided to travel to Castel Gandolfo almost every week, staying from Monday evening until Tuesday evening.
The papal apartment has undergone a lengthy and meticulous restoration, having remained unoccupied since the conclusion of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate on Feb. 28, 2013.
The previous renovation dated back to the spring of 2005, following the death of Pope John Paul II and prior to Benedict XVI taking up residence in the quarters.
In addition to the bedrooms, the apartment comprises a private study for the pope — from the window of which he appears every Sunday to recite the Angelus — as well as a dining room and a private chapel, where pontiffs have traditionally celebrated Mass at the start of each day.
Residing alongside Pope Leo XIV in the papal apartment within the Apostolic Palace will likely be his two secretaries, Peruvian Monsignor Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga and Italian Father Marco Billeri.
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Psychiatrist Paul McHugh speaks about decades-long career, opposition to sex-reassignment surgeries
Psychologist Dr. Paul McHugh spoke with “EWTN News In Depth” about his decades-long career, detailing how sexual reassignment surgeries are not the answer for transgender individuals.
McHugh is a 94-year-old American psychiatrist and educator. He is a distinguished service professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he was previously the Henry Phipps professor and psychiatrist-in-chief from 1975 to 2001.
McHugh has conducted years of research on sexual reassignment surgeries, which are medical procedures that alter a person’s physical sex characteristics such as the chest, genitals, or facial features. McHugh found they do not resolve underlying psychological issues. While some may believe McHugh’s view on the surgeries comes from his faith as a Catholic, he said it is also based in research.
“I am Catholic, and I can’t tell in what way my faith influences any of the things I do. I’m sure it’s important in everything I do. So I can’t deny that it may play a role,” he said. “But … I try to use the information that everybody else uses in determining the fixity or the ‘born that way’ idea.”
McHugh’s career
McHugh is known for many actions in his career, including a move to shut down Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic in 1979 that was performing sex reassignment operations.
When McHugh started to work at Johns Hopkins, the treatment had been going on for about 10 years at the clinic. There were some faculty members following up on the cases to decide if the patients were getting better or worse.
While “most of the patients at the time felt that they had done the right thing when they subjected themselves to the surgery,” all of the issues that they were told would be corrected “didn’t improve,” he said.
“Their difficulties in interpersonal relationships, their difficulties in their jobs. They had difficulty with their families, which was the whole reason for doing it. They were not better,” he said.
“So it didn’t seem to me that this experiment was working out,” McHugh said, noting that it was in fact “an experiment,” because “it wasn’t that they knew perfectly well that these patients would benefit from it.”
“And when they weren’t benefiting … I thought: ‘Well, why do it? Let’s find another way of helping them.’” The clinic was then shut down because of “the evidence,” McHugh said. “I didn’t think at the time that we had enough experience to be able to justify such a radical procedure.”
After years of further research, in 2016, McHugh released a special report in The New Atlantis, “Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the Biological and Psychological and Social Sciences.” Among other findings, the report detailed that there’s no scientific evidence to support that sexual orientation is biologically fixed.
At the time, McHugh’s colleagues at Johns Hopkins took out an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun with pushback on his views. “I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised because the truth of the matter is many people want to know the answer to a question, but they don’t want to have an answer that they don’t like,” McHugh said.
“And if you start asking, just asking the question, it causes them anxiety because they want a particular answer. So I wasn’t particularly surprised that it didn’t go down easily. But I just think we ought to continue asking the question because it’s a very important question,” he said.
Transgender movement today
McHugh has been “astonished” by the momentum from 1979 to today of the transgender movement, the social and political effort advocating for the rights and inclusion of people whose say their gender identity differs from their biological sex.
By closing the clinic, “it didn’t seem to me that we were doing anything terribly radical,” McHugh said. “But gradually, the idea became that somehow or another we were denying these people their honest sex. And I kept saying, ‘Look, we have two things here. We have the facts of the body, and we got the ideas of the patient.’”
Instead of the program building upon “facts,” it was “generating more concern about the ideas and giving the ideas primary focus,” McHugh said. “And I thought that was one of the kinds of things where psychiatry has gone wrong in the past and could go wrong again — imagining things rather than knowing things.”
“We don’t know enough” about the psychiatric impact, especially on children who undergo these operations, “because we’re not spending enough time studying them,” McHugh said.
“The whole idea of doing this to children to … presumably get them to think more about what they’re experiencing has been a track towards … persuading them and has not been a good idea,” he said.
“I’ve, after all, seen a lot of young people … especially young girls, being persuaded that there are some aspects of themselves, in their body, that needs correction,” he said. “It’s really the foundation of anorexia nervosa and things of that sort.”
Children need to be “encouraged to just grow up and let their body take it,” McHugh said. “It turns out that 85% to 90% of them drop off of this. So if you don’t treat them with so-called gender affirming treatments, hormones, or surgery, they gradually give it up.”
Puberty is “a very vulnerable time … all kinds of things are changing in your body and in your mind,” McHugh said. “Once you get through puberty, a new kind of person comes to think about what life is going to be like, what they would commit themselves to.”
“Human beings are different from animals,” he said. “Animals, when they go through puberty, just become what they were from the start. Human beings have a rebirth after puberty as they think in terms of who they are, and what they would like to do. And those ideas would be best appreciated, and filled out, if you were what God made you, as it were.”
“But if you are changed, then you have to spend your life committed to this change, and defending it, rather than moving forward,” he said.
‘Many more lawsuits’ to come
McHugh has stated publicly over the years that he thought it would be lawsuits that ultimately cease the surgeries for minors.
In February, a New York jury awarded $2 million to a woman who underwent a double mastectomy at age 16 in what is believed to be the first U.S. malpractice case of its kind to reach a trial verdict.
Following the first malpractice suit, “it should be” the end of transgender surgeries for minors, McHugh said. “But there are going to be many more lawsuits coming down the pike now, as I predicted it would come.”
The “$2 million is a small thing,” McHugh said. “It’s going to be a lot higher as more and more people come to realize, and they’re going to be mostly women in their mid-20s.”
Next steps
At 94, McHugh said “I’m not retiring yet.” He added: “I’m going to see if I can go a bit further. God got me this far. Maybe he’ll carry me on another while. I’ve got wonderful grandchildren I want to see more of and see how they flourish.”
While he has no plans to retire yet, when that day comes he spoke to what he hopes his legacy is. He said: “I want people to think … that I was part of my times and that I didn’t shy away from the things that occupied the attention of my fellow Americans.”
“I think it’s really important to see that the role you have calls for certain kinds of courage. And if you don’t have that, you shouldn’t have that role. And I had some adventures. And it turns out I was right about a lot of things — that’s the fun part.”
Scotland bishops on assisted suicide legislation: ‘Safeguards do not work’
Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:
Scotland bishops on assisted suicide legislation: ‘Safeguards do not work’
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland is urging Catholics to express opposition to the latest assisted suicide legislation proposed in the country to their representatives in Parliament.
“One of the most serious concerns about assisted suicide legislation is this: Safeguards do not work,” the bishops wrote in a March 6 statement.
“We only have to look at countries that have already introduced these laws. In places such as Holland, Belgium, and Canada, what began with strict limits has steadily expanded. Boundaries shift. Protections weaken. And the most vulnerable are placed at risk.”
The bishops’ latest statement comes ahead of a final vote on March 17 for the bill that would give terminally ill adults access to assisted suicide.
Italian Church calls for day of prayer and fasting for peace
Italy’s bishops designated Friday, March 13, as a national day of prayer and fasting for peace, responding to growing alarm over widening conflict in the Middle East and the risk of broader international destabilization.
The initiative, backed by the presidency of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, aligns with Pope Leo’s repeated warnings against allowing violence to spiral beyond control, ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News, reported Thursday.
The bishops said war cannot become a solution and insisted that diplomacy, dialogue, and the pursuit of the common good remain the only serious path forward.
Parishes and Catholic communities across the country were invited to mark the day through special liturgical intentions, the Stations of the Cross offered for the Middle East, and acts of fasting in solidarity with those enduring war, displacement, and deprivation.
The Church in Italy is also urging prayers for world leaders, refugees, the wounded, and grieving families, while calling the faithful to recover charity as the true foundation of peace.
Diocese of Hong Kong anticipates thousands of baptisms this Easter
The Diocese of Hong Kong is preparing for 2,500 baptisms at Easter, according to a report from Fides News Agency.
The new members of the Church in China include 1,600 adults and 900 infants, according to a recent diocesan bulletin cited in the report, which said this year’s numbers were comparable to those in 2025.
Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan celebrated the rite of scrutiny with catechumens in the diocese at Christ the King Church on March 8 and instructed the future members of the Church to “be bearers of hope.”
Syria feeling fallout of Iranian war despite lack of involvement
Syria is once again absorbing the shockwaves of regional war, as Iranian missiles and drones headed toward Israel pass through its airspace, with projectiles frequently falling inside southern Syria and areas with a Christian presence, ACI MENA reported March 9.
Along the Syrian-Lebanese border, the city of Damascus has increased its military deployment, describing the move as defensive and aimed at border control, anti-smuggling efforts, and preventing infiltration as fighting intensifies inside Lebanon.
The war has also deepened Syria’s humanitarian and economic strain: Thousands of Syrians have returned from Lebanon to escape Israeli strikes, fuel stations have seen panic buying, cooking gas has become harder to obtain, and electricity shortages have worsened amid reduced natural gas flows.
Ethiopian bishops call for investigations into Christian killings
Catholic bishops in Ethiopia have expressed “profound sorrow and unequivocal condemnation” of the recent killings of innocent civilians across the country, including the brutal attacks in the Arsi Zone, a major administrative division within the Oromia Region, located in the southeastern highlands.
“The deliberate taking of innocent human life is a grave sin before God and a violation of the sacred dignity bestowed upon every person created in the image of God,” the bishops said in a statement to ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, on March 10.
“Such violence against defenseless civilians can never be justified by religion, ethnicity, or political interest. We call upon the responsible authorities to undertake investigations and to ensure that those responsible for these crimes are brought to justice.”
Tanzanian bishop condemns police use of tear gas at cathedral
Bishop Michael George Msongazila of Tanzania’s Diocese of Musoma has condemned what he described as “the excessive use of force” by the Tanzania Police Force after officers reportedly hurled tear gas canisters at Holy Mother of God Cathedral.
“I condemn this act of police using force at the headquarters of the Catholic Diocese of Musoma,” Msongazila said in a statement on March 10, ACI Africa reported.
In his statement, Msongazila recounted that a group of women reportedly affiliated with an opposition political party joined other faithful for Mass on March 8 at the cathedral and that, as they were leaving, police officers threw tear gas canisters into the cathedral compound.
The bishop further described the police action as “an act of oppression and cruelty,” insisting that such conduct undermines public trust and calls for urgent reform within the country’s law enforcement structures.
Catholic Church in Philippines to establish mission on island disputed with China
Apostolic Vicar Socrates Calamba Mesiona of Puerto Princesa in the Philippines is establishing a Catholic presence on Pag-asa Island, part of the Philippines-occupied Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
The islands are a strategic and contested archipelago in the South China Sea and a source of tension between China and the Philippines due to its natural resources, according to Asia News.
Mesiona met with government officials to discuss building a church on the island. The bishop said he expected to complete initial preparations for the mission by the end of March. A groundbreaking ceremony is also expected to take place by the end of the month. A parish name and patron saint have yet to be announced, the report said.
New biblical series depicts Book of Genesis through eyes of its best-known women
A new biblical series will depict the Book of Genesis through the eyes of the book’s most well-known women. “The Faithful: Women of the Bible” follows the stories of Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel and how each of these women, and their descendants, shaped the story of salvation.
The three-week event will begin airing on March 22 on Fox and end on Easter Sunday, April 5.
René Echevarria, executive producer and showrunner of the series, told EWTN News that the creators “set out to try to tell these stories in an emotionally grounded way and really try to understand what their lives were like — what their emotional lives were like.”
“One thing that emerges is that all of the three stories that we chose to tell … all of these women stumble,” he said. “They’re trying to figure out how to proceed in life against different complicated circumstances — sometimes encounters with the divine that are asking them to do difficult things — and so that was our sort of North Star, was always to try to understand them on an emotional level.”
The filmmaker highlighted the idea of the relatability behind these stories and how they resonate with modern audiences, especially that of Sarah and Abraham, who were unable to conceive a child for decades.
Echevarria shared that he and his wife struggled with infertility for several years. They realized they needed to place their trust in God’s plan for them. Eventually, they were blessed with three children.
He also pointed out the importance he and his team placed on staying true to Scripture.
“Our guiding principle was that if we were going to dramatize some part of the story, a scene, let’s call it, that’s described in the Bible, then we’re going to dramatize it the way it’s described and including dialogue if there is some,” he explained.
“If we choose not to show something from the Bible, we wanted to make sure that there was nothing that we didn’t present that would make those sort of off-camera scenes impossible to have had occurred,” Echevarria added. “And then the rest was filling in the blanks. The Bible can be very specific, but it can also be profound in its silences … We need to do the research to find out about life at that time to fill in those gaps.”
Echevarria said he hopes viewers are reminded that the men and women in these stories were “flawed, strong, people dealing with extraordinary circumstances and sometimes they made mistakes and yet God always made a good work of it.”
Reflecting on the release of the series being during Lent and the start of Easter, Echevarria said: “We’re coming out of a time for many of us, a time of fasting, a time of reflection.”
“We all love Christmas but Easter is the heart of our faith, isn’t it? So to be able to present these stories, which are the beginning of the Easter story in a sense, the beginning of God’s unfolding story, and his love for his children, and how he set it all in motion 4,000 years ago through Sarah and Abraham.”
‘God wants to cover us in robes of grace,’ Catholic fashion writer says
According to Catholic author Mary Harper, the way we dress can be a way to express faith, human dignity, and personal identity.
Harper, author of “The Liturgical Style Guide,” in which she explores how faith should influence how we dress, noted that the Bible shows the symbolic importance of clothing: “It’s actually pretty amazing how, throughout both the Old Testament and the New … clothing is mentioned over 100 times... The majority of times, it’s meant to be a sign of God’s mercy and providence.”
This symbolism appears from the very beginning of the Bible, she said in a recent interview posted by the Archdiocese of Miami.
After original sin, Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves by sewing together fig leaves, which Harper called “flimsy.”
“What does God do? He literally slaughters an animal, the first sacrifice in Scripture. He covers them in leather garments because he wants them to have something that’s worthy, something that’s good, something that’s actually going to protect them and be lasting,” she explained.
According to Harper, this biblical image helps us understand human dignity. “God wants to cover us in robes of grace,” she said, also recalling the parable of the prodigal son, when the father “puts a robe on him and a ring on him, as a reminder of his goodness and his dignity and his identity.”
That’s why even something as ordinary as getting dressed every day can have a spiritual dimension. “Even through something that we do every day — getting dressed for the day — the Lord is speaking his providence over you. He desires to lavish you in grace. Even getting dressed in the morning is a way to remember putting on Christ, putting on your baptismal garment again, remembering who you are and who you’re called to be in Christ,” she pointed out.
Harper grew up Catholic in New Orleans. She earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in theology from Ave Maria University and is the founder of LiturgicalStyle.com, a project dedicated to reflecting on the theological significance of clothing based on the Bible, the stories of the saints, and the liturgical calendar.
She also writes for litanynyc.com a Catholic made-to-measure clothing company that seeks to apply the Church’s social teaching in its production process.
Clothing as a form of Christian witness
“Whether I intend it or not, my clothing is going to communicate something. You wear a school uniform, it tells you what school you go to; priests put on vestments that tell you about the liturgical season. Well, there’s great power in that,” she said.
From that perspective, she added, clothing can become a form of Christian witness. “I have the capacity to communicate the Gospel through my very garments, through intentionality, creativity, and beauty.”
The author also cautioned that the Christian view of modesty avoids two extremes: absolute individualism and fear of the body.
“One extreme is, I can wear whatever I want, I don’t care what anyone else thinks about it. At the same time, we don’t want to get to the point of, ‘I don’t know how to dress myself well, and I’m so scared of doing the wrong thing … [and] nothing can show because my body is bad,’” she explained.
“The Church has never said that,” Harper added, noting that Christian teaching on the goodness of the human body is developed in depth in St. John Paul II’s theology of the body.
More than strict rules, she argued, the key lies in discerning: “What is it that I want to communicate through what I’m wearing?”
Harper also explained that modesty involves considering the context and the activity.
“It is my responsibility to wear something that makes sense for the activity at hand, for the environment that I’m in, and that allows me to be fully present. That’s a service to everyone around me and to myself,” she stated, citing as an example the impracticality of wearing flip flops to hike in the Rocky Mountains.
Drawing inspiration from the saints
Harper also proposed a creative idea for living out one’s faith in everyday life: finding inspiration in the saints when choosing what to wear.
This does not mean, she clarified, that we imitate them literally. “I’m not telling you to go around wearing a Carmelite habit,” she joked.
Rather, she suggested small symbolic gestures: “If you have Western boots, you can say you’re wearing them in honor of St. Teresa of the Andes,” who loved horseback riding. Or “when you wear jeans, you can think of her, because she just loved to be this great adventurer and going into the mountains” and “I’m going to ask her to pray for me."
Creativity and freedom in the Christian life
For Harper, the relationship between faith and clothing should not become a source of scrupulosity or pressure.
“Sometimes we can get so caught up saying, ‘If I’m a ‘real Catholic,’ then I’m going to dress in this particular way.’ I think it’s really easy to get kind of scrupulous when it comes to clothing,” she reflected.
Instead, she recommended bringing the matter to prayer and discernment with trusted individuals. “If you have any concern about, ‘Am I dressing in a way that is good?’, talk to someone who knows your heart,” she advised.
Finally, Harper encouraged living out Christian creativity in these everyday details as well: “The Holy Spirit is creative."
“When you get dressed for the day, if you just say, ‘Come, Holy Spirit,’ he’s going to show up. It’s going to be awesome and joyful, and it’ll be more fun.”
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.
Michigan teen starts Catholic online newspaper for other teens
Luis Nava, a high school freshman at the International Academy in Michigan, takes to heart that he wants to be ready to answer any questions from his peers but also to better understand his Catholic faith. He began an online newspaper called The Catholic Michigander, where he tackles some of those questions and more.
Nava is a parishioner at St. Joseph Parish in Lake Orion, Michigan, and spent his first few years attending school there. He recently spoke to students at the Catholic school about a project he started to help spread the Catholic faith among teens and to help young people understand what the faith is all about.
“A lot of the times, if I’m facing questions from classmates that don’t have the same beliefs as me, I want to know exactly what I believe and exactly why I believe it,” Nava said.
Learning about his faith became more of a quest after Nava attended a pro-life conference in 2024 at his parish. While he was there, Nava picked up a quote from William Wilberforce that he says inspired him to fulfill what he believes is his calling: “Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me,” he said. The saying is posted above his desk. “I see it every day.”
Nava, who plans to study neuroscience, said he has always been passionate about writing and hoped to start a newspaper one day. After the conference, he felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit guiding him, and he got to work on a website.
“It all came from a project that I had when I was in middle school,” he said. “I was on the newspaper for my middle school in sixth grade, and then in seventh grade I took over as the editor.”
Nava takes ideas for content for the newspaper from his daily experiences and conversations with classmates. He also invites others to write with him.
The newspaper contains a wide variety of articles on different topics, from infertility and natural family planning to life issues and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Nava said he writes “if a particular issue sparks my interest.” Father Jim Kean advises Nava on Catholic theology to ensure that all of the content adheres to Catholic teaching.
“There was a report that a huge amount of Catholics don’t know that Christ is really present in the Eucharist, so I thought topics like those would be good to address,” Nava said.
Each month, Nava writes and edits the copy and posts it to the website, featuring not only his writing but also that of some of his peers.
“A couple of them are parishioners here at St. Joseph Parish, but they were public school students,” said Doris Fornasiero, principal at St. Joseph School. “I think that’s also a remarkable piece, that he’s reaching and pulling in students from all over the public school, private school, but students who are passionate about their faith.”
Nava doesn’t just write about his faith, but he brings it to life, said Lindy Cubba, a middle school religion teacher at St. Joseph.
“As teachers and educators, listening to him, it was remarkable because he had captured this passion for faith and yet this way to inspire and nurture beliefs that people already have and bring them into the open,” Cubba said.
In addition to his work with the newspaper, Nava is also active in the youth group and as an athlete, where he encourages others to live their lives of faith. Recently he spoke to St. Joseph students about his project.
“He’s just an incredibly positive, strong influence in the right way,” Fornasiero said. “He inspired the kids and encouraged them to speak out, that they didn’t have to keep their beliefs and their feelings about their faith to themselves. He was giving them a safe place to voice their beliefs.”
Nava said he is grateful to the Holy Spirit, as well as mentors such as Fornasiero and Cubba, and said he wants to encourage other students to be courageous enough to do what they dream.
“Well, I try to be a model to imitate, but I mean it’s a work in progress,” he said.
“Like with everything, we’re all called to be saints, so I’m trying to walk down that road, as I’m sure everybody is,” Nava said. “I hope this can inspire other people to maybe take action and realize they can do anything. Hopefully, we can get all of the youth of today to really grow in their love for God.”
Nava believes his newspaper project and his interest in neuroscience are related.
“It’s really perfect, because neuroscience and religion and spirituality go hand in hand so well together,” Nava said. “We need God at the center of our lives if we want to have good mental health. I thought that would integrate very well with the writing and with religion.”
With three more years of high school ahead of him, Nava said he hopes he can continue the newspaper for several more years.
“I’m not sure how it’s going to evolve,” he said, “but I hope that we can continue to put out articles that teenagers can see and be inspired by.”
This story was first published by the Detroit Catholic and is reprinted here with permission.