Dominican Sisters challenge New York gender-identity law in court
A group of Catholic religious sisters has taken care of terminal cancer patients free of charge in New York for almost 125 years without a problem.
Now, state officials are warning the sisters and other nursing home administrators about restricting rooms and bathrooms to one sex and failing to use preferred personal pronouns for patients who identify as transgender. The state is also requiring public postings of an antidiscrimination notice.
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who operate Rosary Hill Home, a 42-bed facility, have received three letters from the state’s public health agency, including one warning about “refusing to assign a room to a resident other than in accordance with the resident’s gender identity,” “prohibiting a resident from using a restroom available to other persons of the same gender identity,” and “willfully and repeatedly failing to use a resident’s preferred name or pronouns after being clearly informed of the preferred name or pronouns.”
The letters took the sisters off guard; a state agency’s website shows zero complaints against Rosary Hill Home, located in Hawthorne, a hamlet in the Westchester County town of Mount Pleasant, about 30 miles northeast of Manhattan.
But complying with the state’s rules is not an option for them, since the directives contradict their Catholic faith, the sisters told the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News.
The Catholic Church teaches that sex can’t be changed or separated from gender, although it also says people identifying as transgender must be treated with respect and compassion.
“I think the most important thing is that we are adamant in keeping our Catholic identity. Without that, there’s no purpose for us to do what we’re doing,” Mother Marie Edward, OP, the superior of the religious congregation, told the Register.
The sisters filed a lawsuit against the state on Monday, claiming the state is violating their rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in White Plains, names as defendants New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and four state administrators in the New York State Department of Health. All are sued in their official capacity.
The complaint claims that the state is violating the sisters’ freedom of speech by requiring them to state a point of view they don’t agree with and their free exercise of religion by requiring them to make statements against their Catholic faith.
The complaint also notes that the state statute appears to exempt institutions run by the Church of Christ, Scientist — it doesn’t apply to those “whose teachings include reliance on spiritual means through prayer alone for healing” — which the complaint says violates the Catholic sisters’ religious freedom by favoring one religion over another.
A spokesman for the governor did not respond to a request for comment by publication of this story.
Cadence Acquaviva, senior public information officer for the New York State Department of Health, also contacted by the Register, emailed the Register the following statement: “While the department does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation, the department is committed to following state law, which provides nursing home residents certain rights protecting against discrimination including, but not limited to, gender identity or expression.”
New York law
The letters to the sisters from the state’s public health agency stem from a statute that the New York Legislature passed in 2023 with little fanfare and almost no opposition, known as “The Long-Term Care Facility Residents’ Bill of Rights for LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers and People Living with HIV.”
The state Legislature’s website shows no public hearing for the bill that created the law. When it was introduced on the floor of the lower chamber, the New York State Assembly, in June 2023, the bill drew questions from three Republicans over the course of about 10 minutes, mostly informational and none hostile. Religious liberty did not come up.
The Assembly passed the bill 144-2. The New York Senate passed the bill 55-7. Hochul signed the bill into law on Nov. 30, 2023, the eve of World AIDS Day.
“New York’s seniors should be able to live their lives with the dignity and respect they deserve, free from discrimination of every kind,” Hochul said, according to a press release issued by her office at the time. “LGBTQIA + and HIV-positive seniors are among our most vulnerable populations, and today we are taking steps to ensure that all New Yorkers — regardless of who they are, who they love, or their HIV status — find safety and support in places where they need it the most. Hate will never have a place in New York.”
The sisters told the Register they had never heard of the bill until the letters from the state started arriving about two years ago. State officials have not taken steps against the sisters, but the sisters say they’re worried that they will.
“Over 125 years, as far as they know, they’ve never once had a patient who was wanting to make the gender journey, to transition. And that’s significant, because why are we going through this?” said L. Martin Nussbaum, the sisters’ lawyer and a partner with First & Fourteenth, a law firm with an office in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in an interview. “This law imposed on the Dominican Hawthorne Sisters is a form of gender ideology virtue signaling, to require these sisters to be trained in an ideology entirely contrary to Catholic belief.”
“Why are we doing this? We don’t even have such patients,” Nussbaum said. “It’s the state requiring these holy nuns to bend the knee to an ideology contrary to their faith.”
One letter from the state warned the sisters that their nursing home can’t “restrict a resident’s right to associate with other residents or with visitors, including the right to consensual expression of intimacy or sexual relations, unless the restriction is uniformly applied to all residents in a nondiscriminatory manner.”
Rosary Hill Home belongs to the Catholic Benefits Association, which advocates for free exercise of religion rights of members in providing employee benefits. Nussbaum, who represents the association, said the state’s gender-identity requirements are creating a problem where there was none.
“The sisters do not want to litigate. They want this resolved, and they want to focus on their ministry,” Nussbaum said.
The congregation
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne was founded by Mother Mary Alphonsa, who was known as Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (1851–1926) before she entered religious life. She was one of three children of the 19th-century novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of “The House of the Seven Gables” and “The Scarlet Letter.”
Raised Unitarian, Rose converted to Catholicism during the 1890s. In 1896, she opened an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan for patients with incurable cancer.
“I set my whole being to endeavor to bring consolation to the cancerous poor,” she later wrote, according to a biography of her on the congregation’s website.
She founded a religious congregation in 1900, which opened a nursing home in Hawthorne, New York, in June 1901.
Pope Francis in March 2024 declared her venerable, which is two steps below canonization. Her cause needs a miracle to proceed to beatification and another to qualify her to be declared a saint.
The congregation currently has 44 sisters, split between New York and another nursing facility in Atlanta called Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home.
In the New York facility, about 14 sisters tend to sick patients with the help of lay certified nursing assistants, sisters told the Register.
The home has no limit on the length of stay, and some patients stay for years, sisters told the Register, though the average stay is about two to three months. The vast majority of patients who come to the nursing home die there.
‘We’ve given our life to God’
The New York facility was the subject of an admiring photographic essay and short article in The New York Times Magazine in May 2016, spearheaded by a photographer who appreciated the care the sisters had given to her Jewish mother-in-law when she was dying of cancer.
Mother Marie Edward, who joined the congregation in 1979, told the Register that living their Catholic faith and witnessing to it to others are essential for the sisters, whose work is only partly about taking care of the sick.
“Nursing is a marvelous work in and of itself, but our sisters are, we’re all consecrated, we’ve taken vows, we’ve given our life to God, and certainly prayer is utmost, primary. That we consider a work, and the sisters live a very enclosed life of prayer first, and then it spills over into the care of the patients, so that we are to care for the patients as if they were Christ, the suffering Christ,” she said.
“And to do that, we have to be very strong in our identity as Christians, and to follow the teachings of Christ,” she added. “So to do something that goes contrary to that, it just wouldn’t work.”
The superior general cited John 14:6 as one of the reasons the sisters can’t treat males as if they were females, or vice versa.
“Christ is the center, and the Eucharist sustains us. But Christ is also, as he said, the way, the truth, and the life. And if he’s the truth, then we cannot practice what we do, incorporating something that is an untruth,” she explained.
“And it is an untruth to say that a male should go into a female patient’s room. You’re just trying to contort things, for whatever reason. So we have to stand by the truth of what has been taught to us in the natural law. It is not to be changed,” Mother Marie Edward said.
“For us, this is what sustains us,” added Sister Stella Mary, the superior of Rosary Hill Home, who joined in 2006.
“This is our strength. If our faith wasn’t there, the type of care we provide would not be the same,” she said.
“I’m not saying that other people cannot do so, but the things and the environment that permeates in this place is very different because of our faith, because Christ is here present in the Eucharist,” she continued.
“And anybody that comes in here will always say how peaceful it feels in here, the difference from any other place that they’ve been to,” she said. “So I think there is no way we could do what we do day in and day out, with the difficulties that caring for the sick means, without having our faith.”
Nussbaum, the congregation’s lawyer, told the Register that the state’s requirements on gender identity pose an existential threat to the nursing home, because both the home and the staff members who work there need to renew their licenses under state rules.
The Register asked the sisters if they are concerned that the state might force their nearly 125-year-old nursing home to shut down if they don’t comply.
“I’m not really worried, because I know the Lord is going to take care of us,” Mother Marie Edward said.
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, and has been adapted by EWTN News.
Teen killed, 60 hurt after truck rams Easter procession in Pakistan
LAHORE, Pakistan — Police in Pakistan are continuing their search for a driver who fled after a truck rammed into an Easter procession, killing a teenage boy and injuring more than 60 people, as concerns grow over accountability and safety lapses four days after the incident.
The crash occurred in the early hours of April 5 in Mariamabad in Punjab’s Wazirabad district, where around 200 Catholics had gathered for a predawn Easter service. Irfan Bashir, a 17-year-old laborer, died of a head injury on April 6.
Officials said the suspect, identified as Muhammad Bilal, remains at large. The vehicle involved in the incident and the driver’s assistant are in police custody, and a case has been registered.
“We are conducting daily raids to arrest the driver,” said Muhammad Ahmad, the assistant sub-inspector who filed the case, attributing the incident to overspeeding.
He added that the vehicle was empty and heading to a poultry farm and claimed the procession was held without prior police notification.
At least 14 injured remain hospitalized in two hospitals in nearby Gujranwala, some in serious condition. Doctors said most victims suffered fractures and trauma caused by the impact and the ensuing panic.
The Punjab government set up a medical camp at the local Catholic church on April 6 to assist victims in Mariamabad, a village of about 100 families comprising both Christians and Muslims.
Disputed claims
Church representatives and community members have disputed police claims that authorities were not informed in advance. Organizers insist prior notice had been given, raising concerns over coordination failures.
Father Shahrukh Nathaniel, who led the sunrise service, said road processions have now been suspended following the tragedy.
“We have asked the government to install speed breakers [in some countries called speed bumps] and barriers outside the church, which is located on a main road,” he told EWTN News. “The faithful usually gather outside after Mass, which increases the risk.”
He said authorities have promised financial compensation for the victims and praised the establishment of a medical camp amid shortages in government hospitals, while urging the swift arrest of the driver.
‘It was the worst Easter’
Among the injured is the father of Mark Mathew, a ninth-grade student who was setting off fireworks at the front of the procession when the truck struck. His father, a furniture maker, suffered a fractured leg and is bedridden, while his mother sustained injuries to her knee and eye.
“I feel lucky to be alive,” Mark said. “It was the worst Easter, visiting injured relatives and friends in hospitals.”
Rights advocates say the case highlights broader concerns over the safety of minority religious gatherings in Pakistan.
Capuchin friar condemns ‘Christianophobia’
In an April 8 statement, Capuchin Father Lazar Aslam, convener of the Justice, Peace, and Ecology Commission, “vehemently condemned this irresponsible and heinous act,” describing it as a “clear Christianophobia-driven hate crime.”
“This was not a mere traffic accident; it was a targeted assault on innocent worshippers at the most sacred moment of their liturgical calendar,” he said. “The driver’s failure to stop or render aid, and his decision to flee the scene, further underscores the malicious nature of this crime.”
He added that “the persistent silence and minimization of such incidents are as painful as the violence itself,” warning that genuine interfaith dialogue cannot exist without truth and safety.
“Until the lives of Christians are treated with equal dignity and those responsible are held accountable, empty words of peace will remain insufficient to heal the wounds of the community,” he said.
Aslam called for immediate justice for the victims and urged authorities to ensure comprehensive medical treatment for impoverished families most severely affected by the tragedy.
In September 2025, a Catholic pilgrim was killed and a teenager injured when gunmen attacked a van carrying devotees to the country’s largest Marian shrine in Mariamabad. The group was traveling through the Sheikhupura district to attend the annual Sept. 8 feast of the Nativity of Mary, which draws thousands each year.
EWTN News documentary highlights Lebanon’s Christian roots and enduring faith
EWTN News, in collaboration with its news partner in the Middle East and North Africa, ACI MENA, has launched a documentary titled “Christianity in Lebanon: Rock of Faith.”
The documentary highlights Lebanon’s religious diversity and richness, especially among members of its Christian community. It examines their history, the reality of their presence today, and the sources of their resilience amid a complex political landscape and the challenges of economic crisis, war, and emigration, as well as the role of the younger generation and its efforts to build a brighter future.
Opening with a sweeping scene from atop the statue of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa overlooking Beirut, journalist Colm Flynn begins his journey through a people known for their cultural richness, deep faith, and steadfast endurance, searching for an answer to one pressing question: What does the future hold for Lebanon?
Charbel and Leo
The documentary was filmed during Pope Leo XIV’s historic visit to Lebanon, his first apostolic journey there, late last year. Its producers chose to focus on one of the visit’s most prominent stops: the Monastery of St. Maron in Annaya. In the documentary, Father Louis Matar, the monastery’s caretaker, where Lebanon’s best-known saint, St. Charbel, is buried, recounts the saint’s life in its successive stages.
He points to the saint’s special place among Lebanese people and believers more broadly as well as his worldwide renown. Many visit his tomb asking for his intercession, trusting that God will answer their prayers. The number of visitors to his shrine surpassed 4.5 million in 2025 — including Pope Leo.
An ancient history
The documentary traces the history of Christianity in Lebanon back to the first century, when the first apostles and their disciples brought the good news there. It shows how Christianity took root over the centuries, with religious orders flourishing and churches thriving, especially the Maronite Church, which remained in communion with Rome and helped shape the country’s religious and cultural identity.
In this context, Bishop Michel Aoun, president of the executive committee of the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon, in the documentary highlights the connection between the apostles Paul and Mark and the Lebanese cities of Tyre and Byblos as evidence of Christianity’s presence in Lebanon from its earliest centuries. He notes that Christians made up nearly 60% of the population at the time of the country’s founding, compared with about 30% today.
Lebanon’s Christians and Muslims
Recalling the words of St. John Paul II, “Lebanon is more than a country; it is a message,” Aoun says views differ regarding Christian-Muslim coexistence in Lebanon. Some believe what unites them is greater than what divides them and attribute the fragility of coexistence to Lebanon’s being caught in conflicts larger than itself. Others warn that Christians’ political role has shrunk, leaving them to pay the price for conflicts in which they are not a party.
Ongoing suffering
The documentary also revisits painful events that have shaken Lebanon, beginning with the civil war in the mid-1970s, which divided Beirut into eastern and western sectors, followed by the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, the financial and economic collapse, the Beirut port explosion, and the war now raging and its consequences for the country, especially the towns and villages of the south.
A shared bleeding
Successive wars and crises have forced Lebanese people, both Christians and Muslims, to emigrate. Notably, Lebanon’s population is about 6 million, while nearly 15 million other Lebanese live abroad around the world. Some have returned in an attempt to build a new life in their homeland, but others, according to the documentary, do not seem to be thinking of returning.
Sharbel Bou Maroun, president of the Levant Center for Studies and Research, says the economic situation is going from bad to worse, and millions of Lebanese around the world feel there is no longer anything to return to. Mounting crises continue to push more people to leave, while others remain firmly attached to staying, saying, “This is our land, our roots are here, and we helped found this country.”
Despair and witnesses of hope
In the face of the psychological harm and discouragement caused by repeated crises, especially among young people, some have turned to alcohol or drugs as a way to escape. But many more remain attached to hope.
The documentary offers life stories that embody this perseverance. Singer Rima Turk sees her talent as a blessing from God and has dedicated it to praising and glorifying him. Through her service with the Nasroto association, she works to help people struggling with addiction recover through psychological and spiritual support, which she describes as the most effective path.
William Noun lost his brother, firefighter Joseph, in the Beirut port explosion while he and his colleagues were trying to extinguish a fire that preceded the blast. But he did not lose hope. In the documentary, he recounts his pain and the “breath of peace” he felt when the pope met them at the port and prayed in silence. William continues to raise his voice in pursuit of justice for the victims of the explosion.
The experience of Dr. Amal Chaaya is also featured in the documentary. She speaks of how her faith helped her transform the suffering of losing her sight into insight, work, and creativity, thanking the Lord who gave her strength to carry that cross.
The documentary also presents the experience of Charbel and Giovanni Latif and their efforts through the Christians of the East platform to shed light on their history, current reality, and steadfastness, especially for members of the diaspora, so that they remain connected to their homelands.
Pope Leo’s visit
Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Lebanon receives in-depth attention in the documentary. It captures the atmosphere of joy and popular enthusiasm that accompanied it, especially among young people, both Christian and Muslim, and how prominently it featured across media and social platforms. It also presents differing views regarding the visit.
Lebanon’s Christians do not deny the pain. Yet despite successive crises, wars, and their heavy consequences, their faith remains firm, their endurance steadfast, and their hope for a better tomorrow unbroken. In all of this, they offer the clearest answer to the pressing question about the future.
This story was first published by ACI MENA, the Arabic-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Catholic Church sees increase in conversions as more people desire a ‘relationship to the truth’
Many U.S. dioceses have experienced heavy increases in people joining the Catholic Church around Easter this year, as adult conversions soar in the nation. Some dioceses have even seen record-high numbers of unbaptized people becoming Catholic.
“We’ve seen this great rise the last couple of years, and it’s really intriguing. It’s really joyful,” said JonMarc Grodi, executive director of The Coming Home Network and host of EWTN’s “The Journey Home,” in an interview with “EWTN News Nightly.”
The Ohio-based organization’s mission is “to help non-Catholic Christians, clergy and laity, discover the truth and beauty of Catholicism and to make the journey home to full communion with the Catholic Church.”
The organization is seeing “a huge increase” in numbers of people joining the Church “across the board,” Grodi said.
“Here at The Coming Home Network … we’re working in particular with people who are on that journey, who are asking questions, who are looking for help,” Grodi said. “And over the past years, we saw a 50% increase in the number of Protestant pastors who reached out to us for help in becoming Catholic.”
The network reaches thousands of people seeking information and support through a number of resources, including its Clergy Convert Conference, which specifically invites former Protestant and other non-Catholic Christian pastors and ministers who have become Catholic or who are preparing to enter the Church.
Following a successful first conference in 2025, the network and the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology will host a second gathering May 1–3 in Steubenville, Ohio.
Draw to the faith
It’s a “pretty wide demographic” of those joining the Catholic Church, as it “is not just a local phenomenon,” Grodi said. “This is around the U.S. and around the world.”
“I think 20-30 years ago we were seeing a lot of relatively older, more well-educated, more doctrinally interested people. Nowadays, I think we’re seeing … a much wider demographic interest in the Catholic Church for all sorts of reasons.”
There are also “a lot of people who were brought up or who were born Catholic coming back to the Church,” he said.
“Oftentimes people who were brought up Catholic and leave, it’s hard to bring them back because they think that they already get it, they already know what Catholicism is,” Grodi said. But, “there’s a renewed visibility of Catholic identity that is drawing people who were brought up Catholic back home.”
Grodi said the reasons are “all over the place” as to why so many are converting to the Catholic faith but noted “there’s a great desire for Jesus in the holy Eucharist.”
“We have an increase in noise in the world, and people are looking for a solid foundation, a place to go where they can have a right relationship to truth, and to seek the truth. I think also there have been things that have broken down barriers to people considering the Catholic Church,” he said.
Pope Leo XIV may be helping to inspire people with “his very visible, clear witness to Catholic identity, as well as a lot of notable public conversions that I think have broken down the walls for some people to consider Catholicism,” he said.
“When it gets down to the individual person though, I think so many people are looking for the sacraments. They’re looking for these great gifts from God of his presence, where he promises to show up and be with us in the midst of all the noise,” Grodi said.
“The Church, guided by the Holy Spirit with Scripture, tradition, and the magisterial teaching authority of the Church, gives people a place to come bring their questions and to seek answers and to trust that there’s been 2,000 years of this tradition of seeking truth,” Grodi said.
Algerian cardinal says pope’s upcoming visit not about interreligious dialogue but humanity
Amid preparations for Pope Leo XIV’s historic journey to Algeria, Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco described the visit as an opportunity to advance universal fraternity.
The archbishop of Algiers called Leo’s upcoming trip — the first-ever by a pope to the Muslim-majority country — an effort to continue the Church’s recent outreach to Islamic lands. The pope will visit four countries in Africa on his first apostolic journey to the continent April 13–23.
30 years after Tibhirine massacre, concerns over religious freedom remain
Leo’s visit to the African nation will occur 30 years after the murder of seven Trappist monks from the Tibhirine monastery in 1996. Notably, as reported by ACI Africa, the sister service of EWTN News in Africa, a visit to Tibhirine has not been scheduled during his trip.
“The Holy See never requested a trip to Tibhrine,” Vesco said. “This is likely because the primary focus was on St. Augustine, although the pope will visit the house of two of the martyrs of Tibhirine. Furthermore, there were time constraints. I am certain he will pay tribute to them in another way, notably during the meeting with the Christian community at Notre Dame d’Afrique.”
The shadow of the Tibhirine massacre hangs over Christians in Algeria, who continue to face obstacles to the practice of their faith. As recently reported by EWTN News, several constitutional protections for Christianity were removed from Algeria’s federal constitution in 2020, in which conversions from Islam to Christianity were criminalized.
The Catholic Church has also faced restrictions. Caritas Algeria, the Church’s humanitarian aid organization that served Algeria’s broader population regardless of religion, was closed at the request of Algerian authorities in 2022.
Relative to other parts of the Middle East, however, Vesco said Algeria has experienced relative peace since the Tibhirine massacre.
“The peace of the entire world is threatened ... by what is happening in many regions of the world, especially in Iran and Palestine. We need to seek fraternity — to become brothers,” the cardinal said.
Papal trip in line with Pope Francis, but not on interreligious dialogue
Vesco said Leo’s upcoming visit would fulfill a long-held desire of Pope Francis to visit the country. However, Vesco remarked that while Leo’s trip would align with Francis’ pastoral priorities, it would primarily focus on common human concerns in what the cardinal called a “dialogue of life.”
“Pope Leo aligns himself through this trip, and through his travels, in continuity with Pope Francis. The Holy Father will be in the midst of a Muslim people. This trip is not marked by interreligious dialogue but rather by meeting each other in our humanity,” he said.
A trip in the footsteps of St. Augustine
During his trip, Pope Leo, the former prior general of the Order of St. Augustine, will make a highly symbolic stop in Annaba, formerly known as Hippo, where St. Augustine served as bishop in the fifth century. Vesco hailed the saint as an important figure in both Algerian and Christian history.
“St. Augustine ... recalls Algeria’s deep and diverse history. He is truly a son of that land, and the Algerian people know it and are proud of it,” Vesco said. “At the same time, indeed, he is a figure of ancient Christian thought, and ultimately, the search for truth that brings us all together.”
Pope Leo XIV welcomes ceasefire in Iran as ‘sign of living hope’
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday welcomed the announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war and urged negotiation and prayer to end the war in the Middle East.
“Following these recent hours of great tension for the Middle East and for the whole world, I welcome with satisfaction and as a sign of living hope the announcement of an immediate two-week truce,” the pope said at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square on April 8.
Commenting in the wake of a ceasefire deal between the United States, Israel, and Iran, Leo said: “Only through a return to negotiation can the war come to an end.”
“I urge that this time of delicate diplomatic work be accompanied by prayer, in the hope that readiness for dialogue may become the means to resolve other situations of conflict in the world. I renew for all the invitation to join me in the prayer vigil for peace that we will celebrate here in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, April 11,” he said.
In comments to the press on the evening of April 7, the pope renewed his forceful appeal for an end to war and urged an embrace of dialogue, distinguishing himself as a singular global voice calling for restraint and moral accountability amid bellicose statements from U.S. leadership.
The first U.S.-born pope called on U.S. citizens to plead with elected officials to work for peace in remarks to the press as he left his residence in Castel Gandolfo, 18 miles south of Rome, and called threats to destroy Iran’s civilization unacceptable.
Leo said “attacks on civilian infrastructure [are] against international law [and] also a sign of the hatred, the division, the destruction that the human being is capable of ... We all want to work for peace. People want peace. I would invite citizens of all the countries involved to contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen, to ask them, tell them to work for peace and to reject war.”
Catechesis: Holiness is more than an ethical commitment
Before his appeal, the pope spoke about the Second Vatican Council constitution Lumen Gentium.
The pontiff emphasized that holiness is not a privilege reserved for an elite or a mere “ethical commitment” but a vocation and a gift that involves all the baptized.
“Holiness, according to the conciliar constitution, is not a privilege for a few but a gift that commits every baptized person to strive for the perfection of charity, that is, the fullness of love toward God and toward one’s neighbor,” the pope said.
“Charity is the heart of the holiness to which all believers are called,” he affirmed, noting that its highest expression, as in the early days of the Church, is martyrdom — that is, the willingness to confess Christ even to the shedding of blood.
“This readiness for witness becomes a reality whenever Christians leave signs of faith and love in society, committing themselves to justice,” the pontiff explained in his catechesis.
Along this path, he added, the sacraments — and in a particular way the Eucharist — are the nourishment that fosters a holy life, assimilating each person to Christ, the model and measure of all holiness.
He stressed that holiness does not have “only a practical nature, as if it could be reduced to an ethical commitment, however great, but concerns the very essence of Christian life, both personal and communal.”
Consecrated life: A prophetic sign
The pontiff also recalled that Lumen Gentium defines holiness as a constitutive characteristic of the Catholic Church, which is conceived as “indefectibly holy.”
However, he clarified that this affirmation does not imply a full and completed perfection but rather a call “to confirm this divine gift during her pilgrimage toward the eternal destination,” walking — citing St. Augustine — “amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God.”
In this context, the pope also addressed the reality of sin within the Church, emphasizing that this reality calls everyone to a serious process of personal and communal conversion. “The infinite grace that sanctifies the Church entrusts to us a daily mission: that of our conversion,” he affirmed.
The pope devoted a significant portion of his reflection to consecrated life, which he described as a prophetic sign of the new world already present in the mystery of the Church. In this sense, he noted that the evangelical counsels — poverty, chastity, and obedience — are signs of the kingdom of God and give shape to every experience of consecrated life.
Leo XIV concluded by emphasizing that these virtues are not limits to freedom but gifts that liberate, bestowed by the Holy Spirit. In this way, he said, consecrated persons bear witness to the universal vocation to holiness through a radical following of Christ, recalling that even the experience of suffering, when lived in union with the Lord’s passion, can become a path of holiness and transformation.
Redemptive suffering
Thus, the pontiff explained that there is no human experience that “God does not redeem.”
“Even suffering, lived in union with the passion of the Lord, becomes a path of holiness. The grace that converts and transforms life thus strengthens us in every trial, pointing us not toward a distant ideal but toward the encounter with God, who became man out of love,” he concluded.
This story was updated on April 8, 2026, at 7:57 a.m. ET with the pope’s catechesis. Part of 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.
Eucharist stolen, faithful robbed during adoration in Mexico on Holy Saturday
In the early hours of the morning on Holy Saturday, several individuals in hoods charged into a Eucharistic adoration chapel in the Mexican Diocese of Tlaxcala, assaulting and robbing the faithful in attendance and stealing the ciborium containing the consecrated hosts.
In an April 4 statement, Bishop Julio C. Salcedo Aquino said the faithful, who were praying at Eucharistic adoration in the town of San Lucas Cuauhtelulpan, “were threatened, beaten, and stripped of their belongings.”
“We deplore this incident, above all for the lives and physical and spiritual well-being of the people who suffered this outrage,” he said, expressing his hope “that they may soon regain their peace and their physical and spiritual equilibrium.”
The bishop said that “these events wound us deeply, for among the offenses committed against the Catholic faith, the theft of the Eucharist constitutes one of the most grave,” reminding his listeners that those who commit this sin automatically incur excommunication.
Furthermore, he emphasized that “these events, perpetrated on Holy Saturday, lead us as the Church in Tlaxcala to live in close solidarity with Mary Magdalene, who heads to the tomb to honor the body of Jesus and, finding it empty, hurries to inform the apostle Peter, telling him: ‘They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they have laid him.’”
Salcedo issued a call “to pray intensely for the people who stole the holy Eucharist,” so that they may return it and be converted.
The prelate also asked all parish priests in the Diocese of Tlaxcala to organize “Days of Eucharistic Prayer” and announced that on Saturday, April 11, he will perform a rite of reparation at the Church of San Lucas Cuauhtelulpan.
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.
Churches packed in Nicaragua for Holy Week amid restrictions and police presence
Nicaragua’s churches were “filled with the faithful” during Holy Week 2026 despite continued governmental restrictions and persecution, according to Father Edwing Román, a Nicaraguan priest in exile in Florida.
“Thousands of Lenten and Holy Week activities were canceled once again — such as group pilgrimages; gatherings where hundreds of the faithful assemble to organize the transport of flowers, religious images, or the cross itself to be carried to the churches in procession, accompanied by music and fireworks; or the ‘Judea’ [the reenactment of the passion of Christ] throughout the country,” the priest told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News.
In 2022, the dictatorship of Vice President Rosario Murillo and President Daniel Ortega banned processions in the streets and public thoroughfares. “Religious celebrations have been restricted to inside the churches, courtyards, or atriums, under police surveillance,” the priest said.
Holy Week in Nicaragua “was celebrated in an atypical manner” without the religious freedom to do so fully, said Román, who serves as vicar at St. Agatha Parish in Miami. “Thank God, the churches were filled with the faithful of all ages even as they endured the presence of police and infiltrators.”
“People attended the Easter Vigil in Nicaragua’s parishes under police surveillance. They take photos and videos of the people entering and leaving the church,” Martha Patricia Molina, author of “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church” reported on X.
“Sandinista guards were present to harass the Procession of the Encounter [which depicts the risen Christ appearing to his mother Mary] at a parish in the Archdiocese of Managua,” she also reported on X.
Despite the restrictions, however, Román emphasized that “thousands of the faithful attended churches even with the regime’s extensive propaganda urging people to visit the country’s beaches and tourist centers, the majority of which are owned by Sandinistas — that is, individuals aligned with the dictatorship.”
On March 31, Christopher Landau, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, denounced the Nicaraguan dictatorship for banning public Holy Week processions and expressed his hope to see “the day when our Nicaraguan friends reclaim their religious freedom.”
Responding to Landau, the Nicaraguan government published a statement titled “Utterly False,” in which it “categorically refutes the perverse accusations issued by U.S. government spokespersons” regarding religious activities during Holy Week.
The regime countered that “throughout Nicaragua, thousands of religious activities — both Catholic and those of Christian and evangelical churches — are taking place.”
However, the statement did not specify that the regime banned public Holy Week activities. If any do take place in defiance of the government, they are dispersed by the police.
Molina told ACI Prensa that since 2019, the dictatorship has banned more than 28,900 public processions and acts of popular piety.
Another exiled priest consulted by ACI Prensa who preferred to remain anonymous out of fear of the dictatorship, noted the extensive coverage given to Holy Week activities by media outlets aligned with the regime.
“This year, an unusually large number of media outlets provided coverage,” he said. “I interpret this as stemming more from the government’s fear regarding the current situation and the sanctions involving Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran.”
Román noted the media presence as well, saying that “ironically, pro-government media outlets made their presence felt — going so far as to climb onto the high altar in the midst of a service — to take photographs inside the churches for their political propaganda, thereby denying the existence of any prohibitions and asserting, as they did in a recent statement, that everything is ‘normal.’”
A third exiled priest who also wished to remain anonymous noted that there was no chrism Mass in the dioceses whose bishops have been exiled, nor were there public processions. However, the faithful managed to organize them nonetheless, “with the creativity of the people of God.”
Four Nicaraguan dioceses are currently led by bishops living in exile and lack their shepherds’ physical presence in the country: Matagalpa and Estelí, headed by Bishop Rolando Álvarez (who resides in Rome); Siuna, led by Bishop Isidoro Mora; and Jinotega, led by Bishop Carlos Herrera, who is exiled in Guatemala.
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Alongside Pope Leo XIV, Álvarez, who was formerly imprisoned by the Ortega dictatorship, participated in the Rite of the Adoration of the Cross at the Vatican during Holy Week.
On Holy Thursday, at the conclusion of the chrism Mass at the Managua Cathedral, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes told the media present inside the church that bishops throughout the country sent him images “showing the level of participation in their cathedrals, as well as in their parishes.”
He continued: “What we observe here is the tremendous work of the priests, and that the people — with complete generosity and absolute freedom — have been able to come to their churches and are living out their faith, which, I believe, is the most important thing.”
Brenes, the metropolitan archbishop of Managua, led the Good Friday Stations of the Cross at the Managua Cathedral, which lasted over four hours and drew thousands of the faithful to the surrounding grounds.
Bishop Báez’s homily on Easter Sunday
Silvio Báez, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, has lived in exile since 2019, celebrated midday Mass on Easter Sunday at St. Agatha Parish in Miami. He noted that “by raising the Crucified One from the dead, God reveals not only the triumph of his power over the destructive power of death but also the victory of his justice over the injustices of men.”
“The new hope that Jesus introduces into the world can only be proclaimed out of faith in a God who does not abandon the victims — a liberating God who does not accommodate the pretensions of the powerful, nor follow the paths laid out by the masters of the world. In the presence of the risen Lord, we must ask ourselves whose side we are on: that of those who crucify, or that of the crucified?” he asked.
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.
Threat against entire people of Iran ‘not acceptable,’ Pope Leo XIV says
Pope Leo XIV renewed his forceful appeal for an end to war and urged an embrace of dialogue, distinguishing himself as a singular global voice calling for restraint and moral accountability amid bellicose statements from U.S. leadership.
The first U.S.-born pope called on U.S. citizens to plead with elected officials to work for peace in remarks to the press April 7 and called threats to destroy Iran’s civilization unacceptable. Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump promised on social media the annihilation of the “whole civilization” of Iran if the country fails to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The pope said “attacks on civilian infrastructure [are] against international law [and] also a sign of the hatred, the division, the destruction that the human being is capable of ... We all want to work for peace. People want peace. I would invite citizens of all the countries involved to contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen, to ask them, tell them to work for peace and to reject war.”
Reiterating the substance of his Easter Sunday urbi et orbi message, Leo said he was "asking people of good will to search always for peace and not violence, to reject war, especially a war which many people have said is an unjust war, which is continuing to escalate and is not resolving anything,” the pope said. “We have a worldwide economic crisis, energy crisis, situation in the Middle East of great instability, which is only provoking more hatred throughout the world.”
He also said, speaking in Italian: “Today, as we all know, there was also this threat against the entire people of Iran, and this truly is not acceptable. Let us begin with dialogue. We should resolve problems without reaching this point, yet here we are. We must pray a great deal.”
The pope spoke to the press outside the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo before returning to Rome after a daylong stay there. He made his appeal in Italian and English and did not take reporters’ questions.
“Let’s come back to the table, let’s talk, let’s look for solutions in a peaceful way, and let’s remember especially the innocent,” the pope said. “Children, the elderly, the sick, so many people have already become or will become victims of this continued warfare.”
Pope Leo XIV has repeatedly rejected rhetoric invoking God to justify loss of life. “Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Leo said on Palm Sunday.
On April 7, Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, underscored the pope’s repeated calls for peace and urged Trump to avoid war with Iran.
Carrying hope
Pope Leo XIV in his Easter homily called for peace throughout the world, urging Christians to carry the hope of the Resurrection into a world wounded by war, violence, and injustice.
Leo used his first Easter urbi et orbi message April 5 to make a forceful appeal for an end to war and a renewed embrace of dialogue. He will lead a prayer vigil for peace on April 11 at St. Peter’s Basilica.
The pope has repeatedly condemned war, saying it is a moral failure rooted in abuse of power and domination rather than dialogue. He urged those “who have weapons to lay them down” and those with power “to choose peace — not peace imposed by force, but through dialogue.”
In the Easter message, the pope warned that the world is sliding into a “globalization of indifference” toward the suffering and deaths caused by war.
Valentina Di Donato contributed to this story.
A mission of the heart: Artemis II crew honors faith, family, and a life lost
As the Artemis II mission begins its return from deep into space — now over halfway through its historic journey — the mission is marking a new chapter in human exploration.
Operated by NASA, the crewed flight has captured global attention not only for its technical ambition but also for its human moments. Among them, a moving message sent back to Earth in celebration of Easter and honoring the late wife of a crew member offered a reminder that even amid the vast silence of space, themes of hope, renewal, and faith continue to resonate across the cosmos.
On April 4, a CBS News reporter asked mission pilot Victor Glover if he had a message to share ahead of Easter. The astronaut — who took his Bible into space — shared a powerful reflection on the beauty of creation.
“As we are so far from Earth and look back at, you know, the beauty of creation — I think for me, one of the really important personal perspectives that I have up here is I can really see Earth as one thing,” Glover said. “And when I read the Bible and I look at all of the amazing things that were done for us … you have this amazing place, this spaceship.”
He added: “You guys are talking to us because we’re in a spaceship really far from Earth, but you’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe, in the cosmos. Maybe the distance we are from you makes you think what we’re doing is special, but we’re the same distance from you. And I’m trying to tell you — just trust me — you are special.”
Referencing the Earth, the astronaut said: “In all of this emptiness — this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe — you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together.”
“I think, as we go into Easter Sunday, thinking about all the cultures all around the world, whether you celebrate it or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is an opportunity for us to remember where we are, who we are, and that we are the same thing, and that we’ve gotta get through this together.”
On April 6, Glover also reminded those on Earth about the greatest commandment Christ left us — to love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor.
Moments before the crew lost communication with Earth as the spacecraft went behind the moon, Glover said: “As we get close to the nearest point to the moon and farthest point from Earth, as we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth, and that’s love.”
“Christ said, in response to what was the greatest command, that it was to love God with all you are,” he added. “And he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it. And that is to love your neighbor as yourself.”
Glover has been very open about his Christian faith. Ahead of the Artemis II launch, he shared that Jesus is the answer to the world’s problems, saying: “We need Jesus — whether here on Earth or orbiting the moon.”
In another heartfelt moment, Artemis mission specialist Jeremy Hansen shared a message proposing possible names for two unnamed craters on the moon’s surface. The first name was “Integrity” — to honor the name of their spacecraft — and the second was “Carroll” — to honor the late wife of Artemis commander Reid Wiseman.
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He called the proposal of naming a crater Carroll “especially meaningful for this crew.”
“A number of years ago we started this journey, in our close-knit astronaut family, and we lost a loved one,” he shared.
Hansen explained that at certain points in the moon’s transit around Earth it can be visible from Earth.
“It’s a bright spot on the moon and we would like to call it Carroll,” he said, choking on tears.
Carroll Taylor Wiseman died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 46.
The Artemis crew is scheduled to make their return to Earth by splashing into the Pacific ocean on April 10.