From the virtual to the sacramental: Hackathon in Rome reimagines parish life in age of AI
Inspired by Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, tech leaders, clergy, and educators gathered in Rome for a hackathon to reimagine parish life in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
The event “From Roadmap to Practice” was held at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross on Nov. 7. Following the annual Builders AI Forum that week, the hackathon focused on developing practical prototypes to address parish needs, including liturgical calendars, accessible Church teaching, and digital evangelization.
The hackathon is also set to expand to the United States. Organized by the Catholic Digital Commons Foundation (CDCF) and the Evangelization Lab, the Virtual-to-Sacramental (V2S) hackathon will be held in 4 U.S. dioceses in early 2027.
Where coding meets faith
According to a Nov. 9 press release, more than 60 people gathered for the hackathon, which focused on both building software and organizing ways to support Catholics in the AI era.
More than 15 digital projects were created during the conference, from a digitized Roman martyrology to a database for religious orders.
Father Patrick Mary Briscoe, OP, promoter general for Social Communication of the Order of Preachers, was part of a team that created a database that lets him access documents from his order dating back centuries.
“Typical PDF searches are complex, inefficient, and often incomplete,” Briscoe said. “I teamed up with a developer who, in a few hours, allowed me to tap into hundreds of years of documents to get access to our own resources for formation, content creation, and governance.”
Other projects built included AI-governance tools for parishes, a lunch sign-up sheet for a Roman seminary, and a digitized version of the Roman martyrology.
Keeping the human at the center of American parish life
A central focus of the hackathon was how to implement AI and other technologies into parish life, including in the U.S. in 2027.
Taylor Black, executive director of the Leonum Institute at The Catholic University of America, emphasized that the Church under Pope Leo XIV needed to embrace its vocation to build in the digital age.
“Pope Leo emphasizes the builder’s vocation in the Church, and it starts with sitting down with the people who do the work and creating something they can try together,” Black said.
José Manuel De Urquidi, founder of the Evangelization Lab, expressed his hope that bishops in the U.S. would support the initiative, which he believes will address the challenge of encountering Christ online but not within Catholic communities.
“[The bishops] not only have to bless it but also support it, because the Church as an institution can be slow and risk-averse,” Urquidi said. “A hackathon brings a few involved Catholics and a coder to the same table for a whole day, and by evening they have something they can actually try in real life.”
Sister Nancy Usselmann, FSP, director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies, said the hackathon, her first ever, revealed the potential for collaboration between Church and tech leaders to spread the Gospel.
“This was my first hackathon — a phenomenal learning experience of profound collaboration between pastoral leaders and builders,” Usselmann told EWTN News. “It helped all of us to imagine possibilities, develop opportunities, and create collaborative relationships for the Gospel.”
Vatican official to visit Holy Land to bring closeness of Pope Leo XIV
Amid the ongoing armed conflict in the Holy Land, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, will make a pastoral visit to the region on behalf of Pope Leo XIV.
The Italian cardinal will visit Israel and Palestine from Nov. 16–21. According to a press release from his dicastery, Gugerotti will visit the Catholic communities in these regions to bring them “the expression of the Holy Fatherʼs closeness” as they continue to navigate ongoing casualties from the war and a diminished Christian population.
According to the press release, Israel’s overall Christian communities remain low in terms of population, with approximately 185,000 citizens, equal to 1.9% of the country’s population. Catholics, most of whom belong to the Greek Melkite Church, comprise a majority of these citizens.
The ongoing war in Gaza has also influenced Christian emigration from these lands, particularly from Palestine. In the West Bank, according to the release, Catholics number 35,000 out of 3.5 million people, and there are only 500 Christians in the entire Gaza Strip.
During Gugerotti’s visit, he will meet with the Israeli and Palestinian Catholic communities and celebrate Mass at major Christian sites in the Holy Land, including those in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Galilee.
The cardinal will also visit the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, and the Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem, Nourhan Manougian. In the press release, the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches said that these pastoral and ecumenical visits would “represent the Holy Fatherʼs solidarity and the concrete support of the entire Church for the brothers and sisters of the Holy Land.”
Pope Leo XIV appoints Cistercian monk as new archbishop of Barcelona
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Octavi Vilà Mayo of Girona, Spain, as the new archbishop of Barcelona, succeeding Cardinal Juan José Omella, who turned 80 in April.
This is the first in what is expected to be a long list of pending episcopal appointments in the Catholic Church in Spain. With Barcelona now filled, attention turns again to Girona — a diocese in eastern Spain — which was without a bishop for more than two years before Vilà’s arrival and is now once again awaiting a new shepherd.
The bishop who entered a monastery at age 45
Born in 1961, Vilà entered the Spanish Monastery of Santa Maria of Poblet in 2005 and made his solemn profession on Aug. 15, 2010. Five years later, he was elected abbot, a position to which he was reelected until 2021, when he reached the canonical age limit.
Holding a degree in geography and history and a diploma in library and information science from the University of Barcelona, he was appointed bishop of Girona by Pope Francis in February 2024 and was ordained bishop in Girona Cathedral on April 21, 2024.
Within the Spanish bishops’ conference, he serves as a member of the Episcopal Commission for Consecrated Life. His episcopal motto, “Lead in Order to Serve,” comes from an expression of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
In a letter to his new diocese, Vilà said he had been called by Pope Leo XIV “to share with you a part of the journey toward the Kingdom of God” and expressed his intentions: “I come to Barcelona ready to work courageously for the future of our Church and to do so together with each and every one of you.”
He also underscored the need to “live the faith in communion,” praised the richness of charisms in the Archdiocese of Barcelona, encouraged Catholics never to “give up evangelizing” and to do so “through our lives, through our words, and by living the faith consistently.”
Drawing on his monastic experience, he encouraged his new flock to keep Christ as their “center, model, and goal” and to cultivate intimacy with the Lord.
Before concluding, Vilà entrusted himself “to the many saints our archdiocese has produced throughout the centuries and especially to the martyrs who, both in ancient times and in the 20th century, are a source of inspiration for all of us.”
An Aragon native who arrived in Barcelona by way of Zaire
With this appointment, the long pastoral ministry of Omella comes to an end. Born in the Aragonese town of Cretas in 1946, he studied at the Seminary of Zaragoza and at the formation centers of the White Fathers in Leuven and Jerusalem before being ordained a priest in 1970.
He served in various pastoral roles in the Archdiocese of Zaragoza during his early years as a priest, including a year as a missionary in Zaire. In 1996 he was named auxiliary bishop of Zaragoza and three years later was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Barbastro-Monzón.
Between 2001 and 2003, he also served as apostolic administrator of the dioceses of Huesca and Jaca. In 2004 he was appointed bishop of Calahorra and La Calzada-Logroño, where he remained until the end of 2015, when he was named archbishop of Barcelona.
A trusted collaborator of Pope Francis
Following Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation and the election of Pope Francis, Omella’s presence in Roman institutions steadily increased. In 2014 he joined the Congregation, now Dicastery, for Bishops, where he served until June 2026. He has also been a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
That same year, he was created a cardinal by Pope Francis, and in October 2018 he joined the Ordinary Council of the Synod of Bishops. In March 2023 he was appointed to the Council of Cardinals, the advisory body established by Pope Francis.
In Spain, he was elected president of the Spanish bishops’ conference from 2020 to 2024, years marked by the parliamentary investigation into abuse committed within the Catholic Church. Earlier, he had served as a member of its executive committee, on various commissions, and as national ecclesiastical adviser to Manos Unidas — a nongovernmental organization of the Catholic Church in Spain for development cooperation — from 1999 to 2005.
In a letter addressed to the faithful of Barcelona, the cardinal said that “the arrival of a new bishop is always a moment of grace for a diocese. People change, new stages begin, but the one Shepherd of the Church, Jesus Christ, remains.”
He also emphasized that welcoming the new prelate “also means being ready to walk with him” and therefore urged the faithful to offer their fullest cooperation.
‘In love with this land and its people’
“I feel that I leave deeply in love with this land and its people,” Omella said after the appointment of his successor was announced. During a public appearance, he revealed that he will not remain in Barcelona but will retire to a priests’ residence in Zaragoza: “I am not staying in Barcelona because I do not want to cast a shadow.”
Asked by journalists to assess his years in Barcelona, which were marked by strong political and religious tensions in society, the cardinal declined to offer a personal evaluation. However, he said that in the face of these difficulties he had sought “to bring opposing sides together, that is, to build bridges and foster dialogue.”
Of his successor, he said he is “a simple man with a solid intellectual formation. ... A man of prayer, a man who loves this land and its people, and who wants to evangelize.”
‘I neither confirm nor deny it’
Asked whether he had played any role in promoting Vilà’s appointment, the cardinal replied that if he answered, “it might seem that I am revealing secrets. I neither confirm nor deny it.”
“Who was the person I had in mind and proposed as my successor? I cannot say. Who was the person I had in mind as pope when I entered the conclave? I cannot say that either. But I had a second choice, and it was the same person who was ultimately elected,” he said, referring to Pope Leo XIV.
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.
Why Andorra has a bishop for a prince, and what is at stake in its abortion bill
In Andorra, new laws require the signature of a Catholic bishop. Now the government wants him to sign one he is not expected to: a bill ending criminal penalties for abortions.
Ministers approved the bill on Oct. 28 and sent it to the Consell General, Andorraʼs parliament, under an urgent procedure. No vote has been scheduled.
Mitre and Marianne
Andorra, home to about 90,000 people, has two heads of state, called co-princes: the bishop of Urgell, whose see sits just across the Spanish border, and the president of France. Apart from Vatican City, it is the only country where a Catholic bishop serves as head of state.
Almost 750 years ago, in 1278, the bishop and the Count of Foix settled a feudal fight over the valleys high up in the Pyrenees. The countʼs rights passed to French kings, then to French presidents.
The centuries have not changed this arrangement. The 1993 constitution kept both co-princes, “jointly and indivisibly,” as head of state. Article 8 “recognizes the right to life and fully protects it in its different phases.”
Bishop Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat succeeded Archbishop Joan-Enric Vives on May 31, 2025.
The prelate, only 48 years old at the time, took the oath as co-prince on June 26, 2025, EWTN News Español, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, reported.
Andorra bans abortion outright. The new bill rewrites Article 117 of the penal code so that a woman “who consents to or requests her own abortion, or collaborates in carrying it out” cannot be punished, while leaving penalties for doctors and anyone who performs an abortion in place.
Doctors and anyone who performs an abortion would still face up to three years in prison and a five-year ban from health work.
Today a woman could legally be punished with arrest, though lawmakers say no one has in fact been jailed. Media report that women who have an abortion travel to nearby Catalonia, Spain.
A signature sidestepped
No law takes effect without the co-princes of Andorra, who sanction and enact laws within eight to 15 days under Article 45.
But the bishop cannot block a law alone.
If “circumstances” stop one co-prince from signing in time, the law takes effect with the otherʼs signature and a countersignature from the head of government or speaker, limiting the risk of a total veto.
This has happened before. In 2019, Vives did not sanction laws on assisted reproduction and childrenʼs rights, El Periòdic reported. Both took effect.
Andorran media say they expect a repeat. The news site La Veu Lliure reported Oct. 7 that the government and the Holy See had agreed on the billʼs terms and that the bishop would not sign.
Discreet dialogue with Rome
Head of government Xavier Espot and Ladislau Baró, the minister in charge of the bill, met Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Oct. 22, 2025, and again on July 29. Baró has said there was no “negotiation” with the Holy See, only “dialogue,” CNA Deutsch, the German-language sister service of EWTN News, reported.
Parolin set out the Holy Seeʼs position in Andorra in September 2023. “For the Holy See, the principle of defending life at all its stages is fundamental,” he said. Changing the penal code also raised “the problem of the constitutional system,” he added. “Itʼs not easy to reconcile these two aspects.”
On Nov. 3 Baró told reporters: “We have no validation, either from Rome or from La Seu, nor do we expect it, because the agreed scenario is already this one,” RTVA reported.
The abdication question
In 2018, the Diari dʼAndorra reported that Pope Francis warned then-head of government Antoni Martí that decriminalizing abortion would force the bishop to abdicate. A year later, Politico reported that Vives had made clear he would resign if Macron approved an abortion law in his place.
The narrow bill is built to avoid that crisis, observers say. “There is always a way out, which would be not signing the law,” the retired Vives told Spanish broadcaster COPE in January, Diari dʼAndorra reported.
Serrano Pentinat has said little. “It is not for me to make decisions or speak about it,” he said in November 2025 at a hospital chapel.
“Our whole existence is a yes to life,” he said according to El Periòdic.
Macron, visiting in April, said: “I hope with affection that this debate progresses.”
Votes, voices, and a Christmas address
The government wants the law passed before elections in spring 2027, with an absolute majority of the 28-member Consell General.
The Catholic womenʼs group Stella Mons wants protection for the unborn child and real support for mothers. “The protection of life and the protection of women are not incompatible objectives,” it said in August.
The bishopʼs next likely chance to speak is his Christmas address at the episcopal palace.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear on the question: “The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation” (No. 2273).
LIVE UPDATES: Pope Leo bids farewell to Argentina and heads for Peru
Cause for canonization of World War I chaplain Father Willie Doyle advances to Rome
The cause for canonization of Servant of God Father Willie Doyle, SJ, officially entered the Roman phase of the cause on Nov. 10 after the documentation gathered during the diocesan phase was formally submitted to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome.
The diocesan phase of Doyle’s cause was opened by the Diocese of Meath in Ireland in 2022 and formally closed on Oct. 18, 2026.
This is the first time in more than 40 years that a canonization cause pertaining to an Irish candidate has completed its diocesan phase in Ireland. Venerable Nano Nagle, foundress of the Presentation Sisters, was the last cause in which this occurred.
Jesuit Father Pascual Cebollada, postulator general of the Society of Jesus, will assume the role of postulator for Doyle’s cause, while Father John Hogan of the Diocese of Meath will serve as vice postulator.
“I am delighted that the cause has reached this important stage. I am confident that the cause will progress further and I encourage people to pray through the intercession of Father Willie Doyle,” Bishop Tom Deenihan of the Diocese of Meath said in a statement. “Father Doyle’s generosity and heroism, which stemmed from his religious conviction, is an example for our time. It was very evident from the closing ceremony in Mullingar on 18 October that devotion to Father Doyle has extended beyond his own century and is as relevant today as it ever was.”
Hogan added: “More than 3,000 pages of Father Willieʼs writings, together with extensive historical and theological analyses and commentaries, have been assembled during the diocesan phase and were delivered to the dicastery this week. This represents a major milestone in the cause for his canonization.”
“We will now begin work on the positio — the detailed study of Father Willieʼs life, heroic virtues, and reputation for holiness,” he said. “Alongside this, we will continue to promote devotion to Father Willie and encourage people to seek his intercession, particularly through prayer for miracles.”
Born on March 3, 1873, in Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland, Doyle was the youngest of seven children. He grew up in a devout Catholic family who cared deeply for the less fortunate. Long lines of the local poor people would form outside the Doyle home during Christmas where they would be given financial assistance and gifts.
In 1891, at the age of 18, Doyle entered the Jesuit novitiate in Tullabeg, Rahan, in the Diocese of Meath. Most of his priesthood was spent preaching missions in parishes and giving retreats to religious communities around Ireland. He was particularly devoted to ministering to ordinary workmen.
In November 1915, Doyle was appointed chaplain to the 8th Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers. Despite having the rank of captain, he lived and suffered alongside his men, experiencing all of the dangers and trials of life in the trenches.
He was awarded the 16th (Irish) Division Parchment of Merit for bravery during a gas attack in April 1916 and received the Military Cross for his bravery at the Battle of the Somme.
On Aug. 16, 1917, at the Battle of Passchendaele, Doyle laid down his life to assist two wounded soldiers at the front line. He was struck by a German shell and his body was never recovered.
His private diaries, discovered after his death, reveal a life of intense prayer, sacrifice, and spiritual discipline. Devotion to him spread after his death, and his life and writings have continued to inspire people around the world.
Father Mike Schmitz to take center stage at Radio City Music Hall
On Nov. 16, Father Mike Schmitz will bring Jesus’ parables to one of New York’s most historic venues — Radio City Music Hall.
Schmitz has been traveling around the world on his Parables tour, which focuses on bringing the Gospel message to audiences. The tour focuses on providing impactful messages by using several of Jesus’ parables taught in the New Testament.
“I’ve never been inside Radio City Music Hall and I’m so excited to be able to be there, but when it comes down to it, it’s out there: the people in the 12th row! There are people there to hear the word of God. You can see their faces, and there’s something about that to realize, OK, God wants them. He brought them here. To be entrusted with a bit of that. There’s an exciting part of it, but it’s also humbling,” Schmitz told “The Good Newsroom.”
He pointed out that while on tour he asks venues to leave the house lights up higher than usual so that the connection between preacher and those gathered can be maintained.
“I need to see their faces. I want to see them because it makes a connection,” he explained.
When discussing the reasoning behind choosing to focus on Jesus’ parables, Schmitz said: “God says, ‘No, this is what I need you to know, not just here’s a nice little story, but here’s what I need you to know.’ I was just so convicted by that. This is both urgent and important. That was the main driver [for the tour].”
The tour is part of Schmitz’s Seeds of Faith Campaign, which is raising funds for a new Newman Center to be built on the University of Minnesota, Duluth, (UMD) campus, where Schmitz is the chaplain at the Newman Center.
In an interview with EWTN News in 2025, the priest explained that while he has loved working in both parish and campus settings, each is unique. While college kids can tend to be “fickle” in their faith, he said, they also have a beautiful openness to change that he didn’t experience at a parish.
“College ministry is unique because you have this openness … It is that place where so many people are asking the big questions in life and we just see so many conversions happening when we’re there,” he said.
The Newman Center at UMD has seen a flourishing of vocations. According to Bulldog Catholic, the name of the university’s campus ministry, 400 couples have gone through marriage preparation classes, eight women have entered religious life, and over 16 men have entered seminary, with seven ordained as priests.
“One of my favorite things to do is marriage prep; it just really brings me so much life,” Schmitz said. “I just love even being able to present to couples who are discerning marriage like, no you’re actually discerning how God is asking you, calling you, to be his disciple in your life. That’s the big question. That’s one of the reasons why we get married in churches is because this is a sacrament of discipleship.”
As for those who have discerned religious life, Schmitz called it “a great grace” to walk with these individuals in their vocations.
For others working in campus ministry, Schmitz gave three suggestions to grow involvement: Offer daily Mass and confession, start engaging Bible studies, and host retreats often.
He emphasized that these events in which people are brought together, such as Bible studies and retreats, help grow involvement because “as Catholics we worship in rows, but we grow in circles.”
Tickets can be purchased for the Parables tour at Radio City Music Hall here.
Ottawa’s Mass for the Fallen honors those who ‘paid the ultimate price’ for freedom
“A powerful symbol of peace after years of devastating war.”
That’s how Bishop Scott McCaig described the Armistice of Compiègne, the international agreement that ended fighting in World War I in 1918.
The agreement, also known as the Armistice of 11 November 1918, was signed on that day in the Compiègne Forest, with the last fighting continuing until 11 a.m. local time.
McCaig said the symbolic alignment of the date and time of the signing — taking place at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of that year — was given special significance after the brutality of the long global conflict.
“Over time [in Canada] the day evolved to honor not only those who died in the First World War, but also all Canadian soldiers who served and sacrificed their lives in subsequent wars and military conflicts,” McCaig said.
The prelate, who serves as the bishop of the Military Ordinariate of Canada, will mark that observance this week with the Mass for the Fallen, held in Ottawa’s Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica on Nov. 11.
McCaig said the Mass is “offered for the dead, specifically those who have died in wars, in service to God and country, and the veterans who have passed away.”
“We offer the holy sacrifice and pray for them in gratitude for the sacrifice they made to defend our freedoms and liberate those oppressed by unlawful invasion of their countries,” he said.
The bishop said the observance dates back years, though at one point it was dropped in favor of the national Remembrance Day Ceremony at Ottawa’s cenotaph.
Yet McCaig said that recently the government “has placed increasing restrictions on prayer to the point of an outright banning of any reference to God.”
The military ordinariate subsequently reinstated the memorial Mass. This year will mark the fourth such Mass, and “the numbers are growing from year to year,” McCaig said.
The Canadian War Museum says that around 61,000 Canadians were killed during World War I, though other government figures put the number as high as 66,000.
The government said the contributions of Canadians to the war effort “earned Canada a separate signature on the Treaty of Versailles,” the peace treaty that officially ended the state of war in June 1919.
McCaig said response to the Mass for the Fallen continues to be positive.
“Many serving members, veterans, and family members have expressed their deep appreciation for the Mass for the Fallen,” he said. “Some are deeply moved during the Mass, remembering friends who have fallen in battle.”
“It honors those who have paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we enjoy, not the least of which is freedom of religion,” he said.
Pope Leo XIV urges youth to shun ‘the idols of our time’ and turn to Christ
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Pope Leo XIV appealed to young people to reject worldly distractions and follow Christ, assuring them that their past mistakes are no obstacle to joining the Church.
“Dear young people, Christ loves us and wants us to share in his own life,” Leo told an estimated 1 million participants at a vigil on Nov. 10, his last night in Argentina. “Christ offers you a life that not even death can take away.”
The event took place at the same site in northern Buenos Aires where Leo had celebrated Mass the previous day, drawing an estimated 2.5 million people. The crowds in Argentina have been by far the largest of his pontificate.
The pope’s speech came after testimonies and questions from young people, including a man recovering from drug addiction.
Leo urged his listeners to reject what he called “the idols of our time,” which cannot provide happiness or life.
“Idols arise and demand our worship: success at any cost, money, an obsession with appearance, popularity or the unrestrained pursuit of pleasure. Sometimes, in order to win the approval of others, we may go so far as to lie, betray or humiliate someone on social media,” the pope said.
“There are also those who make a business of offering pleasures that ultimately enslave us, such as pornography and addictive substances,” he added.
Leo cited Pope Francis’ insistence that “everyone, everyone, everyone” is welcome in the Church.
“Whoever you are and whatever you may have done, Jesus Christ knows you, loves you and wants you to be close to him,” the pope said. “No one has fallen so low that Christ cannot raise them up.”
He added that “we all need conversion” and that welcome is not the equivalent of moral indifference.
“Christ loves us as we are, but his love is too great to leave us prisoners of sin, of what destroys us,” Leo said. “There are wounds to be healed, failings to be acknowledged and, whenever possible, wrongs to be made right.”
He urged his listeners to confess their sins, pray, read Scripture and receive the Eucharist in order to be transformed by Christ.
“Share your bread with those who are hungry, open your doors to those who have no home, visit the sick and those whom no one wants to visit,” the pope told his young listeners, as part of his program for their pursuit of sanctity.
On Wednesday, following a pilgrimage to Argentina’s most prominent Marian shrine, in Luján, Leo was scheduled to leave for Peru, the last stop on his tour of South America.
PHOTOS: Pope Leo XIV visits Argentina during South American papal trip
Pope Leo XIV marked two full days in Argentina with several Masses and meetings with Catholic leadership along with a youth vigil and a celebration of vespers.
The pope will finish his Argentinian visit on Nov. 11 and fly to Peru, his adopted country where he spent years as a bishop and where he will finish out his historic South American trip. The Holy Father already visited Uruguay at the outset of his journey.
Here are some photos of Pope Leo’s activities in Argentina.
