‘It’s what I’m called to do’: Montse Alvarado on her new Vatican role
Montse Alvarado came to EWTN in 2021 as the founding host of the global Catholic network’s weekly news magazine show “EWTN News In Depth.” Just a few years later, in 2023, she was promoted to president and chief operating officer of EWTN News.
Now she is preparing to begin, on Nov. 1, another challenging new role, one that is taking her to the Eternal City as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication.
In an “EWTN News In Depth” interview with Colm Flynn, Alvarado reflected on where her life has taken her so far, her vocation, and what’s ahead.
Since 2023, Alvarado has led EWTN News’ global and multilingual news operations across television, radio, print, digital, and social media platforms.
Before joining EWTN, she spent 14 years at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, where she also rose to a position of leadership and worked extensively on issues related to religious freedom and human dignity.
Born in Mexico City, Alvarado came to the United States as a young girl. She studied at Florida International University and The George Washington University, served her church, and even discerned religious life.
She shared that she’s “done none of this alone” and that as she has walked into each new chapter, “thereʼs an incredible team there to work with, mentors that are more generous than I could ever deserve.”
After ending her time at Becket, she recalled “thinking about the importance of religious freedom and the Constitution and the American Dream and I said, ‘Well, whatʼs it all for if not for heaven?’”
“I looked at EWTN and Mother Angelica and she spoke to my heart. That desperate desire for people to go to heaven … and so coming in here and having an environment where I was only talking about Jesus every day and only trying to communicate him to the world was a great honor for me and my spiritual life, but also seemed like a very logical thing to do when I thought about it from a calling and spiritual perspective,” she explained.
Alvarado credited Mother Angelica and EWTN for playing a major role in the lead-up to her appointment to her new position.
She explained that due to EWTN’s role in collaborating with the Holy See for several large events — including Pope Leo XIV’s first-ever live dialogue with young people in Indianapolis in November 2025 and EWTN’s collaboration with the dicastery to create a video reflection ahead of the release of the Holy Father’s first encyclical Magnifica Humanitas — she was able to meet with the pope and “get to know the inner workings.”
Alvarado will be making history as she takes on this new responsibility — becoming the first laywoman appointed prefect of a dicastery of the Holy See. She said she believes she was chosen for the position because “we are in a moment where digital communications and traditional communications are coming together,” and the Holy Father “was looking for a next-generation professional, thatʼs clear, and God willing, Iʼll be able to fill those shoes.”
When asked if her response to the Holy Father’s reaching out to her about the appointment prompted an immediate yes, Alvarado admitted that it “took a little more prayer than I would care to admit.”
“My entire life has been a surrender to Jesus Christ and his Church in the hopes that others would have a relationship with him. But Iʼm human, Colm, and moving to a new country, learning a new language, all of those pieces, leaving everything behind, theyʼre big to overcome,” she said. “And so I think it took a little more prayer than I would care to admit. Iʼm a little more human than I would care to admit in my willingness to say yes.”
As prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, Alvarado will oversee all of the Holy See’s media and communication outlets, which include Vatican News, Vatican Media, Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano, the Holy See Press Office, the Vatican publishing house, the Vatican internet service, the Vatican printing press, and the Vatican’s photography service.
“Itʼs enormous,” Alvarado said.
“Communicating Christ to the world is the mandate of the communications dicastery, and it will be done in concert with the Holy Father … Weʼre getting to know what this is, what it should be, what the desire of his heart is, and what the Holy Spirit has really given him as the mandate for his pontificate,” she added. “And my job is to serve him and the Church and to serve the dicasteries and serve the Curia. In no way am I imposing a vision. Iʼm very much receiving one and executing it.”
She shared that while people have been telling her that by going into the Vatican she has to be careful “because I might lose my faith seeing the humanity of the Church,” that excites her and she prefers to “turn that on its head and say Iʼm going to see the humanity of the Church, which for me has always been an affirmation that Jesus Christ is real and his Church is the true Church. Because in seeing the way things work, I actually find that itʼs miraculous.”
“I feel like seeing the inner workings and the reality, even overcoming my own imperfections and sinfulness, as a child of God, the fact that God could use me as an instrument for something so great is incredibly humbling.”
Bishop Barron slams ‘clownish irrelevance’ of German Catholic academy in blistering statement
Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron this week issued a sharply critical statement of what he described as “inane” controversy involving a German Catholic institution from which he received an award in 2025.
Barron received the Josef Pieper Prize in Münster in July 2025, a decision that generated protests from Catholic groups and political organizations. The protesters criticized the bishop as promoting “exclusionary identity politics,” among other allegations.
The German news website katholisch.de reported on Oct. 21 that Barron’s 2025 receipt of the award was “still having repercussions.” It cited the Josef Pieper Foundation as reportedly having “acknowledged mistakes” in how it handled the controversy; the foundation is also reportedly developing a conference “on Barron and his theology.”
In a statement posted to X on Oct. 22, Barron quipped: “Gosh, I’d love to attend this debate. But I’m pretty sure I have a MAGA rally to attend that night…”
“If you have any doubt that the German Catholic academy has fallen into clownish irrelevance, look no further than this inane and ginned-up ‘controversy,’” the Chicago-born prelate wrote.
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He critically dismissed the “protest” over his receipt of the award as having consisted of “25 desultory septuaginarians holding signs and a statement from the theological faculty of the University of Munster.”
He described that faculty statement as “an undergraduate level of sophistication … which betrayed not the slightest indication of any familiarity with my work.”
The bishop, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Oct. 23 via a spokesman, further suggested that the German foundation’s namesake Josef Pieper was “turning in his grave” over the controversy. The foundation also did not immediately respond to a request for comment from EWTN News.
The Josef Pieper Prize honors the legacy of the German Catholic philosopher (1904–1997), who was renowned for his accessible writings on Thomistic philosophy and his insights into leisure, contemplation, and the relationship between faith and reason.
Amid the July 2025 controversy, Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau in Bavaria delivered a defense of Barron while sharply condemning what the Bavarian bishop called “beige Catholicism” in Germany.
The country has been home to “a mostly well-financed Catholicism of appeasement,” he argued, which “has essentially lost its spiritual power and attraction.”
Catholic ethicists debate morality of embryo adoption
Can embryo adoption be considered morally licit by the Catholic Church? The John Paul II Shrine in Washington, D.C., hosted a debate between two Catholic ethicists Oct. 22 in an event marking the feast of St. John Paul II.
The Catholic Church has not issued a definitive judgment that embryo adoption is morally licit. The issue remains debated among Catholic theologians. In the 2008 Vatican document Dignitas Personae, the Church affirmed the dignity and rights of frozen embryos and expressed reservations about proposals for prenatal adoption.
John Haas, president emeritus of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, argued that embryo adoption is morally illicit as it requires the artificial transfer of a frozen embryo into the womb of a woman who is unrelated to the unborn child — a practice he said both violates the Church’s teachings about sexual ethics in marriage and deliberately endangers the lives of embryos in the thawing process.
Haas further argued that the only moral solution to the question of what to do with frozen embryos is to keep them frozen, as bringing them to life or disposing of them in any way would always be considered illicit. To support this claim, he cited the 1987 Vatican document Donum Vitae, which states: “In consequence of the fact that they have been produced in vitro, those embryos which art not transferred into the body of the mother and are called ‘spare’ are exposed to an absurd fate, with no possibility of their being offered safe means of survival which can be licitly pursued.”
Organized by the pro-life organization Defend Life, the event took place after a Mass in honor of St. John Paul II and was livestreamed on the organization’s website.
Elizabeth Rex, an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, argued in favor of embryo adoption, saying that neither the Vatican nor the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have “ever formally ruled against embryo transfer or embryo adoption.”
While acknowledging the Church’s teaching that in vitro fertilization (IVF) is immoral, Rex argued that the process of IVF and the transfer of the embryo into a mother’s womb should not be separated.
“They go together. You donʼt do IVF just to leave [the embryo] in the petri dish or put it in the freezer. That would be an abortion,” she said. “The baby would die. So, the baby now has been conceived, and it needs to be transferred into the womb. Itʼs a person. Itʼs a child. Itʼs a patient, and it needs medical assistance. And that is what the Church teaches there.”
Haas countered Rex’s argument that the Church has not ruled out embryo adoption, saying: “The only statement from the magisterium of the Church that has fueled this debate is one half of one sentence from Dignitas Personae that the supporters of embryo adoption often donʼt bother to finish when they quote it.”
The paragraph he cited in the document states: “It has also been proposed, solely in order to allow human beings to be born who are otherwise condemned to destruction, that there could be a form of ‘prenatal adoption.’ This proposal, praiseworthy with regard to the intention of respecting and defending human life, presents however various problems not dissimilar to those mentioned above. All things considered, it needs to be recognized that the thousands of abandoned embryos represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved.”
Haas argued that the ends do not justify the means with regard to embryo adoption and that the Holy See has not made “a single statement on behalf of embryo adoption.”
Pope Leo XIV increases lay appointments to International Theology Commission
On Monday, Oct. 19, Pope Leo XIV appointed new members to the International Theology Commission (ITC) for the 2026–2031 cycle. Compared with previous years, the number of women has increased from five to eight, including five laywomen, raising the total number of lay representatives to eight — double that of the previous term.
Each member of the ITC is a scholar in various fields, as reported in the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, “including biblical studies, patristics, dogmatics and moral theology, but with some publicly holding views that conflict with established Church teaching, such as on women’s ordination and the theology of salvation.”
The commission, founded by Pope Paul VI in 1969, is made up of 30 individuals and is tasked with assisting the Holy See — particularly the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith — with the study of theological questions and publishing official advisory documents.
The group meets once a year for a week to discuss their work and tackle any ongoing discussions and global theological demands. Made up of both laypeople and members of the clergy, the ITC brings together a wide range of scholars from around the world including those from Asia, Africa, and South America.
Pope Leo has asked the new ITC members and six returnees to focus on the topics of tradition and enculturation of the faith over their term.
The commission’s lay membership
The following lay scholars — five women and two men — are new members of the ITC:
Professor Teresa Hyeon Soon Choi — South Korea
Teresa Hyeon Soon Choi is an associate professor at the Institute for Whole Person Education Center of Sogang University in Seoul.
Professor Maria Teresa Fattori — Italy
Maria Teresa Fattori is a researcher at the University of Teramo, Italy, specializing in early modern papal history, the governance of Pope Benedict XVI, and provincial councils in polycentric Catholicism. Her current work focuses on the relationship between the Catholic Church and slavery in the early modern period. She has published extensively on the history of the early modern Roman Curia, the development of canon law after the Council of Trent, and the history of global Catholicism.
Professor Claudia Leal Luna — Chile
Claudia Leal Luna is a full professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome. With a niche in understanding the fragility of the human hallmark and the methodology of social morality, Luna is also an alumna of the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue.
Professor Sara Parvis — Great Britain/Scotland
Sara Parvis is an associate professor at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity and was appointed for her expertise in early Christianity and theology. Her contributions draw on her experience as a lay Dominican, her studies in early Christian theological development, and her writings on Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’.
Professor Anne-Sophie Vivier-Muresan — France
Anne-Sophie Vivier-Muresan is dean of the faculty of theology at the Catholic Institute of Paris. Holding doctorates in social anthropology, ethnology, and Catholic theology, she is a specialist in dogmatic and Trinitarian theology working on contemporary Orthodox theology and theology of religions.
Professor Boyd Taylor Coolman — USA
Boyd Taylor Coolman is an associate professor in the theology department in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences at Boston College. He is a historical theologian of medieval Catholicism and founder of the Boston Colloquy in Historical Theology.
Professor Jan-Heiner Tück — Austria
Jan-Heiner Tück is a German theologian who has served as a professor of dogmatics and dogmatic history since 2010 at the University of Vienna, where he also heads the Department of Dogmatic Theology.
Rounding out the number of laypeople on the commission for the new term to eight is Professor Reinhard Huetter, a visiting professor of theology at Duke Divinity School in the United States, who was confirmed for a second consecutive five-year term.
The full list of membership for this next five-year cycle can be found at the Holy See Press Office website.
Pope Paul VI established the ITC in 1969, and its status was further defined in 1982 by Pope John Paul II. Throughout its active years, the commission has published 33 documents with the approval of its president, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which aid in the work of the dicastery for the year.
Catholic campus ministries eligible for Lilly grant of up to $7.5 million
Catholic campus ministries such as Newman Ministry and FOCUS are eligible to participate in the Lilly Endowment’s "National Initiative to Strengthen Christian Campus Ministries at Colleges and Universities,” the charitable organization confirmed.
The Lilly Endowment told EWTN News that archdioceses and church-related networks that minister to students on multiple college and university campuses are eligible to apply for grants through the initiative.
According to the grant page, the Lilly Endowment “intends to award grants of up to $7.5 million each to approximately 20 national and regional charitable organizations.”
Matt Zerrusen, Newman Ministry co-founder and chief innovative discipleship officer, told EWTN News that Newman Ministry is in the process of applying for the grant now.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity,” Zerrusen said. “There’s not many times where something like this opens up in campus ministry just because it’s been an overlooked part of ministry in the Church.”
Zerrusen expressed hope that other Catholic campus ministries like FOCUS, St. Paul’s Outreach, and the Catholic Campus Ministry Association would apply for the program as well, calling for ministry organizations to unify their efforts.
“There’s so much competition in the Catholic world that itʼs like, ‘Well, hang on here. What are we doing?’” he said. “Weʼre both trying to solve the same problem.”
Pope Leo XIV appoints Catholic University of America professor to pontifical academy
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Gregory Doolan, the Monsignor John F. Wippel chair in Thomistic metaphysics at The Catholic University of America (CUA), to serve on the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.
“It is a great honor to have been named to the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas,” Doolan said in a CUA press release on Oct. 16. “The Academy brings together philosophers and theologians from around the world in conversation about Aquinas, and I am grateful for the opportunity both to learn from its members and to contribute my own work in Thomistic metaphysics, showing its enduring relevance in the 21st century.”
“My appointment by Pope Leo XIV has a fitting connection to The Catholic University of America, since another Leo, Leo XIII, founded the Academy in 1879 and also granted Catholic University its pontifical charter just a decade later,” he said.
St. Carlos Acutis’ mother gifts Franciscan University with first-class relic of her son
The mother of St. Carlo Acutis, Antonia Salzano, has given the president of Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, a first-class relic of her son.
“Weʼre deeply grateful to Antonia for this extraordinary gift and for sharing her sonʼs witness with the Franciscan University community,” the university said in an Oct. 15 social media post announcing the gift to Father Dave Pivonka, TOR. The university said Salzano shared a message with the university: “Holiness is for everyone.”
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“Carlo became a saint not because he lived an extraordinary life by the worldʼs standards, but because he made Jesus the center of his ordinary life,” the university said. “His secret? The Eucharist. His motherʼs advice? Start small. Make time for prayer. Receive Jesus in the Eucharist. Love the people around you. And remember that you, too, are called to become a saint.”
Archbishop Sample urges ‘significant renewal of Catholic education’ in Portland, Oregon
Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon, is calling for the revitalization of “mission passionate Catholic education” in his archdiocese.
“Would we call a Spanish-language immersion school successful if its graduates could barely understand Spanish?” Sample wrote in an Oct. 15 social media post. “We should take the mission of our Catholic schools just as seriously. Academic excellence matters. So does forming students who know Jesus Christ and can understand, articulate and live the faith.”
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“Therefore, I am calling for a significant and genuine renewal of Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Portland, beginning in our Catholic elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools and eventually extending to the religious education and faith formation programs in our parishes,” he said.
Sample’s message comes as part of a wider mission renewal initiative in the archdiocese announced on Oct. 1.
Pope Leo XIV: True justice is never separated ‘from truth and mercy’
Pope Leo XIV on Friday said that although it is “impossible” to translate the image of the Church perfectly into canonical language, canon law is called to “reflect it.”
He made the remark during an audience with participants in an international congress organized on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Faculty of Canon Law of the Pontifical Gregorian University, one of the most influential academic institutions in the formation of canon lawyers throughout the world.
In his Oct. 23 address, the pontiff recalled that the study of the Church’s law can only be fully understood in light of the ecclesial mystery described by the Second Vatican Council, especially in the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium.
Citing St. John Paul II and the apostolic constitution Sacrae Disciplinae Leges, through which he promulgated the 1983 Code of Canon Law, Leo XIV stressed that while “it is impossible to translate the image of the Church perfectly into canonical language,” the Church’s legal system nevertheless has the duty to reflect it.
The pope’s words carry particular significance in light of his academic background. Leo XIV holds a doctorate in canon law and has extensive experience as a specialist in ecclesiastical legislation, a formation that has profoundly shaped his approach to governing the Church.
In this regard, he explained that canon law provides an “essential service in safeguarding ecclesial communion” and is therefore “extremely necessary for the Church.” Its purpose, he added, is “to create such order in ecclesial society that, while giving primacy to love, grace, and charism, it makes their organic development easier.”
The pontiff also insisted that the juridical and pastoral dimensions cannot be separated. “The good of the person and that of the ecclesial community cannot exist independently of one another,” he said.
Heirs to a long canonical tradition
During his address, Leo XIV paid tribute to the Faculty of Canon Law at the Gregorian University, founded on Aug. 16, 1876, by decision of Blessed Pius IX.
The pope noted that the anniversary represents “a fundamental milestone in a history that began centuries ago” and praised the many scholars who have contributed to the development of canon law. Thanks to them, he said, the institution has consolidated an academic tradition that continues to bear fruit for the universal Church.
“They constitute a kind of unbroken thread linking generations and still today transmit a valuable scientific and ecclesial heritage,” he said.
He also recalled that the Faculty is an apostolic work of the Society of Jesus and shares the Ignatian spirituality summarized in the principle “Non multa, sed multum” (“Not many things, but much depth”).
“What matters is not knowing many things, but penetrating reality deeply, understanding it, and interiorizing it,” he explained, recalling the teaching of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
Forming jurists with an ecclesial sense of justice
In the final part of his address, the pope insisted that the teaching of canon law cannot be limited to the transmission of norms. Its goal, he said, is “to form persons who possess the ecclesial sense of what is just (‘iustum’), acquired through rigorous study of the sources, the canonical tradition, and the theological principles that illuminate the norm.”
Leo XIV also recalled that the Faculty’s own academic program states that “the law of the Church must always tend toward the supernatural good of each of the faithful and the building up of ecclesial communion.”
For this reason, he urged professors and students to work in pursuit of “true justice, never separated in the Church from truth and mercy.”
Drawing on a famous expression of St. Augustine, he added: “Ordinata dilectio est iustitia” — “Ordered love is justice.”
He then encouraged them to offer students “a living experience of the universal Church,” recalling that it finds “in the bishop of Rome the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity.”
Addressing students from various countries, he asked them to live the universality of the Church during their years of formation and, upon returning to their dioceses and communities, to bring that experience with them “as a treasure to be shared.”
This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Catholic social scientists hold conference blending disciplines and faith
Catholic social scientists are gathering near Cleveland this weekend for a conference on topics that blend Catholic theology and social teachings with the academic work in their various disciplines.
The Society of Catholic Social Scientists (SCSS), founded in 1992 by political scientist Stephen M. Krason, will hold its 34th National Meeting on Oct. 23–24 at John Carroll University, located in University Heights, Ohio, a suburb east of Cleveland.
Ahead of the conference, Krason — professor emeritus of political science at Franciscan University of Steubenville — told EWTN News a primary goal of SCSS is to “bring Catholic teaching and a Catholic understanding and a Catholic worldview to the work they do in their disciplines.”
Conference talks will include discussions on hot-button issues such as artificial intelligence (AI), immigration policy, just war doctrine, and euthanasia. There are also discussions about Catholic history in the United States, in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the founders signing the Declaration of Independence.
According to SCSS’ website, the organization seeks to follow St. John XXIII’s instruction in his encyclical Mater et Magistra for Christians to “conform their behavior in economic and social affairs to the teachings of the Church.”
Krason said SCSS reaches out to members ahead of the conference for proposals on papers, which constitute the subject of the talk and are often submitted to SCSS’ scholarly journal, the Catholic Social Science Review (CSSR).
To be a full member, Krason said, “you have to sign a profession of faith [that] you accept the Church’s teachings” and noted that people come to the organization “looking for a solid orthodox Catholic organization.” Before the talks, papers are reviewed to ensure faithfulness to Catholic teaching, though he said this is typically not an issue for members.
Krason said most presenters are SCSS members, but sometimes a few are not. He said SCSS also accepts associate members who are not Catholic. They also accept student members who are working toward their master’s degrees.
The organization, which states that its programs are designed to reflect views “compatible with Catholic orthodoxy,” welcomes scholars from various social sciences, including political science, economics, history, psychology, sociology, counseling, and law, among others.
Upcoming conference
Scholars will discuss a broad range of topics. Krason noted that topics are decided based on the submissions, but the conference is not built around specific themes.
One topic is Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which focuses on AI and other elements of Catholic social teaching. The talks will discuss concerns about human dignity, along with an Augustinian approach to concerns about transhumanism — a movement to blend humanity and machine.
The conference includes talks about immigration, in light of President Donald Trump’s policy of mass deportations. This includes discussions about balancing national sovereignty and human dignity and the social impact of migration.
Other talks delve into political theory and the subjects of natural law and labor, as well as a Thomistic analysis of usury and modern banking. A few talks are focused on the American South, including one about the principle of subsidiarity in Catholic social teaching and the political theory of John C. Calhoun, who favored strong decentralization of government.
There are talks on just war doctrine, one of which looks into the approaches of various popes in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The organization will also give out the Blessed Frederic Ozanam Award for Catholic Social Action, which will be received by Clark Massey, founder of A Simple House, which is a missionary organization.
Another award, the Pope Pius XI Award for Contributions Toward the Building Up of a True Catholic Social Science, will be given to Notre Dame political scientist and author Patrick J. Deneen.
Deneen told EWTN News he’s “honored to receive” the award and “grateful for the existence and work of the SCSS in fostering and advancing a true science of social phenomena.”
“Those who work in the largely disfavored school of Catholic social science understand that its object of study is neither the determined and unfree entities studied by natural science, nor the infinitely malleable substances that modern technology claims to command, but creatures — men and women — who are simultaneously free and subject to natural laws not of our making,” Deneen said.
“A true social science recognizes that we are most free when we acknowledge and follow those laws within even the wide boundaries they establish,” he said. “How much healthier our society would be if more of our social science began with these premises, and suffused our social and political order with its findings.”
At least 6 killed, dozens wounded in Jordan as gunmen open fire in church during funeral
At least six people were killed and 28 others injured, some seriously, when gunmen opened fire Friday during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in the village of Hamoud in Karak province, southern Jordan.
Jordan’s Public Security Directorate said unidentified gunmen opened fire inside a church in Karak province, causing deaths and injuries. It said security forces were pursuing those involved. Its initial statement did not specify the number of casualties or identify the shooters.
Jordan’s Al-Mamlaka television channel, citing a source, reported that two gunmen got out of a vehicle and opened fire during a funeral at the church in Hamoud.
Reuters quoted a funeral attendee as saying that one gunman carried a rifle and the other a handgun. The witness said the shooting lasted several minutes and targeted a gathering of dozens of mourners. The news agency also reported that security forces had deployed around the church and begun searching for the two suspects.
Jordanian authorities have not yet announced the suspects’ identities or a motive for the shooting. No group has claimed responsibility.
Jordan’s minister of government communication, Mohammad Momani, said security agencies were responding at the scene and that information would be released once verified. He urged the public to allow the authorities to complete their work and to rely on official sources.
The Public Security Directorate also warned against circulating unofficial information about the incident, urging the public to follow statements issued by the relevant authorities.
Hamoud lies in Karak province, which is home to historic Christian communities alongside Muslim residents. The circumstances and motives behind the shooting remain unknown, pending the findings of the investigation and further official information.
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.
Vatican-backed congress offers a Catholic response to the ‘infertility emergency’
ROME — A Vatican-backed congress on infertility treatment in line with Catholic teaching was held in Rome last week.
Over the three-day gathering, specialists from various fields addressed the scientific, anthropological, and ethical challenges connected with sexuality and reproduction.
Pope Leo XIV was himself set to address the first day of the Oct. 16–18 conference, titled “The Splendor of the Human Person: Preserving Fertility, Healing Infertility,” but the audience had to be canceled due to the pontiff’s hospitalization Oct. 13–17.
The congress, held at the Rome campus of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, opened with a lecture by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on “the dignity and beauty of procreation in the Church’s magisterium.”
Bishop Claudio Giuliodori, president of the Italy-based Paul VI International Scientific Institute Foundation (ISI) and general ecclesiastical assistant of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, warned that the assisted reproductive technology in vitro fertilization (IVF) “removes the generative act from the responsibility of the spouses” and places it in the hands of “doctors and laboratory technicians.”
“It raises no small number of ethical questions that, without any hesitation, we move from a procreative act rooted in the gift of mutual love, expressed in becoming one flesh in marriage, to a kind of delegation or subcontracting of the most relevant and meaningful human act, namely the begetting of a child, entrusting it to a process external to the couple and exclusively technical in nature,” the prelate said.
Giuliodori also addressed the moral issues surrounding IVF and other assisted reproductive techniques, ranging from the collection of germ cells and AI-assisted selection of gametes to the production, freezing, and possible use of embryos for scientific research.
“We must consider the numerous and complex technical and ethical questions linked to obtaining germ cells, the selection of gametes today through artificial intelligence, the methods of producing embryos according to the various techniques, the number of those who, even after implantation, are subject to reduction or elimination, the cryopreservation of embryos that are not implanted, and their possible use for scientific research,” he said.
The prelate emphasized that Italy is estimated to have between 30,000 and 100,000 frozen embryos, while noting that precise figures do not exist. “No one is able to produce exact data, and this is striking,” he said, highlighting the “health, legal, economic, and above all ethical” implications of this reality.
According to Giuliodori, the central issue “from an anthropological and ethical, but also existential and social point of view” is that IVF transfers the generation of new life outside the marital relationship.
‘Not produced in a laboratory’
On July 25, 1978, Louise Brown, the first child born through assisted reproductive technologies, came into the world. Giuliodori noted that many of these techniques were initially developed in the field of animal reproduction and argued that their application to human generation is morally unacceptable.
“[That] which may be justified in the context of livestock breeding appears wholly inappropriate and ethically unacceptable for human beings, who have the right to be conceived within the exclusive context of their parents’ act of love, not produced in a laboratory,” he said.
He also lamented that public debate focuses almost exclusively on adults’ desire to have children.
“Unfortunately, there is much discussion about the right to have a child by whatever means, but very little about the right of the child to be conceived in a truly human way within the context of conjugal love,” he said.
Leo XIV and Donum Vitae
During his remarks, Giuliodori recalled recent teachings from Pope Leo XIV on the dignity of every human life and the need to set ethical limits on technological development.
The president of the ISI Foundation also cited one of the central affirmations of the instruction Donum Vitae, published Feb. 22, 1987, by the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: “What is technically possible is not thereby morally admissible.”
Clinical alternatives to artificial fertilization
In the second part of his speech, Giuliodori reviewed the history and mission of the ISI, which was created to offer clinical alternatives to artificial fertilization by treating the underlying causes of infertility.
He highlighted that the institute now operates within the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital Foundation, where it benefits from “all the support necessary for the most advanced research” and from an interdisciplinary approach that enables “highly precise and in-depth diagnoses.”
According to Giuliodori, this method offers “the real possibility, already widely documented, of providing concrete answers for eliminating the causes of infertility.”
He said that the experience accumulated over 25 years has made ISI an international reference point for couples seeking to address infertility without resorting to artificial fertilization techniques.
“The results achieved, including in terms of pregnancies, exceed in percentage terms those reported by medically assisted reproduction centers,” he said.
‘The infertility emergency’
Dr. Paola Pellicanò, a physician at the Center for Natural Fertility Regulation at Rome’s Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, a consecrated member of the Ordo Virginum (Order of Virgins), and president of the association Donum Vitae, stressed the need to address “the infertility emergency in which we find ourselves” with responses that go beyond the technical or reproductive solutions usually proposed.
In this regard, she noted that recent World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines have begun to recognize the importance of fertility education, the promotion of healthy lifestyles, and respect for the personal convictions of couples.
According to Pellicanò, these recommendations point toward a greater appreciation of knowledge about fertile periods in the female cycle and educational outreach to the wider population.
The specialist recalled that in 1988 the WHO itself published a guide on natural fertility regulation services, defining them as “primarily educational,” and emphasized that “the success of these programs depended on the training of qualified instructors.”
Response to a cultural and social emergency
During her presentation, Pellicanò linked the work carried out by the Center for Natural Fertility Regulation in Italy with a broader vision of the person and the family.
Its origins date back to 1976, when gynecologist and missionary Dr. Anna Cappella, trained in natural fertility regulation through her collaboration with Drs. John and Evelyn Billings, took charge of a project promoted by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart with the support of the Holy See and the Italian Bishops’ Conference.
That work later led to the creation of a study and research center specializing in natural fertility regulation, which over the years became an international point of reference.
Pellicanò particularly highlighted the center’s clinical experience, which has accompanied more than 8,000 couples.
She insisted that fertility should not be viewed solely through the lens of achieving pregnancy: “The passion is not limited to solving the problem of having or not having a child, but embraces the whole of life.”
According to Pellicanò, “knowing and understanding fertility allows people to become protagonists of their own decisions” and helps them avoid “a merely passive attitude toward certain interventions or reproductive techniques.”
Prevention, responsibility, and generosity
Pellicanò stressed that concepts such as prevention of infertility, responsibility, and generosity are fundamental not only for addressing infertility but also broader phenomena such as the demographic crisis.
“Words such as prevention, but also responsibility and generosity, take on value here, as they are important for addressing the cultural and emotional aspects of infertility and of the decline in birth rates itself,” she explained.
She also highlighted the extensive training the network built over the decades, with more than 1,000 instructors of the Billings Ovulation Method in Italy, integrated into international organizations and connected with projects developed on different continents.
The president of Donum Vitae defended a scientific approach that does not lose sight of the human dimension of procreation and medicine.
“Preserving fertility is a scientific vision that places the human person at its center,” she said.
In this regard, she recalled that the tradition developed by the center is rooted in the conviction that knowledge of female fertility is a reality inscribed in a woman’s very nature and one that can be studied scientifically.
Pellicanò placed this vision in continuity with the teachings of the most recent pontiffs, from St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II to Benedict XVI, Francis, and Leo XIV, who in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas presents openness to life as an expression of human beauty and dignity.
This story was first published by EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Liechtenstein’s prince vetoes bill to legalize abortion up to 12 weeks
Liechtensteinʼs Hereditary Prince Alois has vetoed a bill that would have legalized abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, blocking a measure the tiny European countryʼs parliament passed by a single vote.
The prince “will therefore withhold” approval from the bill adopted by the principalityʼs parliament, the Princely House said in an Oct. 20 statement.
Under the constitution of Liechtenstein, a nation of about 40,000 people between Switzerland and Austria, no law takes effect without the reigning princeʼs approval.
The statement said Alois “remains convinced that the proposed reform is not compatible with ensuring adequate protection of unborn life as a fundamental legal value.”
The statement added that Alois supports better information, counseling, and support for women before, during, and after pregnancy.
The bill would have allowed abortion up to 12 weeks. The activists behind the initiative pushing for legalization also sought to lift the advertising ban and have health insurance cover abortions.
Abortion remains a crime in Liechtenstein except in cases of rape or grave danger to the womanʼs life or health. Since 2015, women who have abortions abroad, usually in Switzerland or Austria, have not been prosecuted.
The initiative gathered 4,970 signatures, nearly a quarter of eligible voters. Liechtenstein’s parliament, the Landtag, approved it by 13-12 and, by the same margin, declined to put it to a popular vote, EWTN News reported in September.
Alois had said in June that he would veto the measure.
Voters narrowly rejected legalizing abortion in a 2011 referendum after Alois said he would veto it if approved. In 2012, more than three-quarters of voters rejected a proposal to remove the princeʼs veto over laws approved by referendum.
The initiative committee said the veto was the first Alois has used during his reign, SRF reported. Its members had met Alois at Vaduz Castle hours before the announcement. The committee called for a protest in Vaduz on Saturday.
There are no official statistics on abortions in Liechtenstein.
Before the Landtag vote, Bishop Benno Elbs, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Vaduz, said in an Aug. 21 statement that the existing rules had proven themselves and that protecting unborn life must go hand in hand with counseling and practical help for parents. The archdiocese had not commented publicly on the veto as of Oct. 23.
According to Church teaching, human life is under Godʼs special protection from the moment of conception.
“With the authority conferred by Christ upon Peter and his successors, I therefore affirm, in communion with the bishops of the Catholic Church, that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always a grave moral offense,” St. John Paul II declared in 1995 in Evangelium Vitae.