Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

Greek Catholic Bishop Maksym Ryabukha of the Exarchate of Donetsk, Ukraine. / Credit: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 14, 2025 / 15:57 pm (CNA).

Maksym Ryabukha, the Greek Catholic bishop of the Exarchate of Donetsk in Ukraine, describes himself as a “bishop on wheels” because he frequently travels to visit parishes and accompany his faithful in the midst of war. “This allows me to see the depths of human life,” he said.

One of the youngest bishops in the world, the 45-year-old prelate explained in an interview with the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that, before the Russian invasion, there were “more than 80 parishes” in the exarchate in east-Central Ukraine, “but more than half have been closed, occupied, or destroyed. Now we have only 37 active parishes.”

In the occupied zone, he lamented, “the laws of the occupation force forbid any affiliation with the Catholic Church, either Greek-Catholic or Latin rite, and it is very difficult to provide any sort of ministry there. My exarchate no longer has any priests in these territories. All our churches have been destroyed, or they are closed and people are not allowed to attend them.”

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has reported the deaths of at least 13,883 civilians, including 726 children, and the injured number 35,548.

Regarding the current situation, Ryabukha noted that it is becoming “increasingly worse. The drones make every place unsafe, including for civilians. Along the front line, some 18 miles from my territory, people leave their homes at night, in fear of being crushed to death, and go to sleep in the countryside by the lakes.”

“One boy told me that he was sleeping with his entire family when they heard a bomb drawing closer and realized that it could land right on their house,” the bishop said. “In just a few seconds, they leapt out of bed and left the house, and soon, the whole building was turned into a crater. An experience like that can crush you. It is very destructive.”

The OHCHR reported on Aug. 13 that a record number of civilians were killed and injured in Ukraine in July.

That month, 286 people were killed and 1,388 injured, the highest number of overall casualties since May 2022. Nearly 40% of the casualties were caused by long-range weapons, such as rockets and loitering munitions. On July 31, an attack on Kyiv killed 31 people — including five children — and left 171 injured, most of them in a residential building hit by a rocket.

For Ryabukha, “what hurts most is seeing that the world remains silent while civilian areas are bombed and people are killed. The only thing that gives us hope is that God is stronger than the evil we can find in the world. We look at daily life from the perspective of heaven, because sooner or later, everything will end, and that end is called paradise.”

The prelate also pointed out that “the worst isn’t the bombs. It’s the feeling of being forgotten, feeling alone, or of being of no value to anybody.”

However, even in the occupied territories believers “feel part of one Church: in support; in personal encounters; when they share their dreams and hopes; when they pray together, even though it is very dangerous.”

Despite the difficulties, there is hope in the eparchy: “We have 19 seminarians. This is remarkable!” the bishop said. “It is a large number for us, as we are not a big eparchy. These boys are great … they have a deep experience of Christian life … Before, people generally felt lost ... Now, there is clarity: ‘I want to take responsibility for my life, and I want to do this.’”

With the help of ACN, the priests and women religious are receiving psychological training to care for young people who have lost the ability to read, write, or speak due to the trauma of the war. They also support widows and mothers of fallen soldiers and distribute humanitarian aid to people who have lost everything.

“God, through our hands, manages to touch and embrace those people who suffer and bring them a smile, a little joy, a little inner serenity,” Ryabukha affirmed.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Before the Angelus on July 13, 2025, Pope Leo XIV celebrated a Mass for local Catholics, religious leaders, and civil authorities at the 17th-century Pontifical Parish of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo’s main square. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 14, 2025 / 13:22 pm (CNA).

Upon arriving at Castel Gandolfo on Aug. 13, Pope Leo XIV called for a peaceful resolution to the war between Russia and Ukraine ahead of the upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The meeting, scheduled for Aug. 15 in Alaska, will address the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which the Russian army invaded three years ago.

The Holy Father stated: “We must always seek a ceasefire; the violence, the many deaths must stop. Let‘s see how they can reach an agreement. Because after all this time, what is the purpose of war? We must always rely on dialogue, on diplomatic work, and not on violence or weapons.”

According to Vatican News, Pope Leo XIV also spoke about the possible deportation of the population of Gaza.

“The humanitarian crisis must be resolved. We cannot go on like this. We know the violence of terrorism, and we honor the many who have died, as well as the hostages — they must be freed. But we must also think of the many who are dying of hunger,” the Holy Father said.

He noted that “the Holy See cannot stop” the conflicts, but, he said, “we are working, let’s say, on ‘soft diplomacy,’ always inviting, encouraging the pursuit of nonviolence through dialogue and seeking solutions, because these problems cannot be resolved with war.”

The Holy Father is in Castel Gandolfo for a second vacation. He will remain at the papal residence, located on the shores of Lake Albano, until Aug. 19.

On Friday, Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he will celebrate Mass at the pontifical parish in Castel Gandolfo.

On Sunday, Aug. 17, at 9:30 a.m. local time, the Holy Father will arrive at the shrine of Santa Maria della Rotonda in Albano, an Italian town bordering Castel Gandolfo, to celebrate Mass with a group of poor people receiving assistance from Caritas.

After Mass, he will head to Castel Gandolfo to pray the Angelus at noon from Liberty Plaza.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need reminds us that “women religious are often on the front lines of wars.” / Credit: ACN

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 13, 2025 / 16:55 pm (CNA).

The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) joined the International Union of Superiors General in its call to pray and fast for world peace on Aug. 14, the eve of the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In a statement released Aug. 13, Regina Lynch, executive president of ACN International, said: “Wherever there is conflict, women and children are marginalized, and it is often they who suffer most. Religious sisters are often on the front lines of wars, helping the innocent in whatever way they can, without regard for their own safety.”

“It is therefore very commendable that this group of women should be leading the way in denouncing warfare and calling for peace and reconciliation,” Lynch said. “ACN is happy to add its voice to the many which are responding to their brave call.”

Pointing to the wars raging all over the world, including in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the International Union of Superiors General — made up of 1,903 female heads of religious congregations from around the world — called for the world to unite in a day of fasting and prayer on Aug. 14 ahead of the celebration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The group said women religious “cannot remain silent spectators” and entrusted themselves to the Mother of God, Our Lady of Peace, “so that she may tenderly answer the cries of the peoples and teach us to be a humble and prophetic presence in places of suffering.”

“Each day we see faces marked by pain, lives shattered, peoples deprived of dignity and peace, especially the women and children,” the organization said.

Lynch emphasized that “Mary is the Queen of Peace. Let us pray that she may touch the hearts of decision-makers all over the world, that they may yearn for the peace of her son, Jesus Christ.”

“On this feast of her assumption into heaven, we recall that there is a woman, in body and spirit, at the side of Our Lord. No doubt she will be sympathetic to the pain and anguish that the women religious are witnessing and shall intercede for an end to the conflicts,” she stated.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

The side of Toulouse Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toulouse) in Toulouse in the South of France. / Credit: Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 12, 2025 / 14:24 pm (CNA).

The French bishops’ conference has issued a statement addressed to the archbishop of Toulouse, Guy de Kerimel, asking him to rescind the promotion of a priest who served time in prison for the rape of a minor boy.

In an Aug. 10 press release from the presidency of the Bishops’ Conference of France, the French bishops revealed they had “engaged in constructive dialogue” with Kerimel, “inviting him to reconsider the decision he made regarding the appointment of the chancellor of his diocese.”

“Such an appointment to such an important position, both canonically and symbolically, can only reopen wounds, reawaken suspicions, and disconcert the people of God,” they wrote.

The French bishops further recalled the Church’s efforts in the past several years to approach “the painful question of abuses committed within it.”

“It is very important to continue this work in all sectors of ecclesial life,” they said, emphasizing the need to reorient the Church’s approach by listening more attentively to the experiences of abuse victims, a process they described as “a long and demanding work of conversion, which we are resolute to continue.” 

The statement comes after Kerimel announced in June that Father Dominique Spina would be promoted to the position of chancellor and episcopal delegate for marriages, effective Sept. 1, for the Archdiocese of Toulouse. 

Spina was convicted in 2006 by the Tarbes Court of Appeals for raping a 16-year-old student in 1993 while serving as the boy’s spiritual director at Notre-Dame de Bétharram school. The court sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment, with four years to be served and one year suspended.

The decree announcing Spina’s appointment was published on June 2 but did not become public knowledge until July 7, when the regional newspaper La Dépêche du Midi broke the story. 

De Kerimel defended his controversial choice in a statement to Agence France-Presse, saying he had “taken the side of mercy” in promoting Spina, who had worked in diocesan archives for five years.

“It is true that Father Spina served a five-year prison sentence, including one year suspended, for very serious acts that took place nearly 30 years ago,” the archbishop said, according to Le Monde.

He justified the appointment by arguing that Church officials “have nothing to reproach this priest for in the last 30 years.” 

The archbishop added that Spina “no longer exercises pastoral responsibility, other than celebrating the Eucharist, alone or exceptionally for the faithful.”

St. James Roman Catholic Church in Reading, England, is the starting point of the English route of the Camino de Santiago. / Credit: Kevin Hellon/Shutterstock

London, England, Aug 12, 2025 / 13:52 pm (CNA).

A bishop in the United Kingdom has expressed concern about a proposal to build a huge solar farm on the English stretch of the Camino de Santiago in the south of England.

The English leg of the highly popular and historic pilgrimage runs 68 miles from the city of Reading to the port of Southampton, which falls within the Diocese of Portsmouth and has been frequented by pilgrims for more than a thousand years.

The Camino de Santiago is made up of many different ancient routes across Europe that all lead to the tomb of St. James in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.

English pilgrims would traditionally take a boat from Portsmouth and sail to Spain before continuing their pilgrimage.

In an email exchange with CNA, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth expressed his worries about the proposal.

“The proposal to build a large solar farm seems unfortunate and I can understand any villager, farmer, or lover of the South Downs feeling saddened at the loss of land and the potential blight on the landscape, even if there are several other areas of the South Downs given over to solar farms.”

The South Downs is a highly popular national park through which the historic route runs.

“Since I became bishop of Portsmouth in 2012, I have been very aware of this venerable Camino route from Reading to Southampton,” he said. “Our parish in Reading, dedicated to St. James and standing in the ruins of the pre-Reformation abbey, is the official starting point of the Camino.”

“Indeed, only last year, I went out to greet four American bishops hiking the trail and who were staying in a farmhouse near Alton, Hampshire,” he continued. “Much of the central part of the route through Hampshire is idyllic; it is very rural, and you feel far away from the hectivity of modern life. As you walk along, it is easy to feel part of a spiritual exercise that goes back to medieval times.”

Egan said he hoped the ancient route would still be marked out in some way, adding: “I wonder too if they might install paneling and other measures to hide the solar cells and safeguard the most attractive views?”

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, the proposed Stokes Lane Solar Farm will supply energy to 9,390 homes every year for 40 years.

A spokesperson for Solar2, the renewable energy company driving the proposal, said the plans were “necessary and urgent” in the context of the “the climate emergency, energy security, environmental degradation, and growing risks to U.K. food production,” the Telegraph reported.

But Professor Joseph Shaw, head of the U.K. Latin Mass Society — which organizes an annual pilgrimage to the Marian shrine of Walsingham, England — said: “Solar farms already encroach on many areas of our countryside, including areas near where I walk regularly in Oxfordshire. It is no exaggeration to say that they have the power to turn an ancient pathway to a holy place into a track through an alien industrial wasteland. I hope that planners are mindful of this site’s status as a World Heritage Site and preserve it for future generations.”

The U.K. stretch of the Camino became the first pilgrimage route to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1993.

The area also boasts other gems of historic interest including the Grade-I-listed, 12th-century building of All Saints Church, located about a half a mile away. George Austen, brother to the author Jane Austen, is also buried there, adding further historic weight. 

The proposal has proved so controversial that the consultation period hosted by the local council has been extended by 20 days and will now close on Aug. 25.

The parish priest of St. Patrick in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, Canon John Murray, is in a “serious but stable” condition in hospital following the Aug. 10, 2025, assault in which his fingers were broken while defending himself. / Credit: Pacemaker

Dublin, Ireland, Aug 11, 2025 / 11:27 am (CNA).

A 77-year-old parish priest in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland, sustained head and hand injuries following a violent attack as he was getting ready to say Sunday morning Mass.

The parish priest of St. Patrick in Downpatrick, Canon John Murray, is in a “serious but stable” condition in the hospital following the Aug. 10 assault in which his fingers were broken while defending himself.

In a separate incident that police believe to be connected to the assault on Murray, a murder inquiry is underway after a man was found dead in a house in the County Down town, RTÉ News reported.

In a statement, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said inquiries are ongoing: “At this time, we suspect this may be connected to a serious assault in the St. Patrick’s Avenue area of Downpatrick on Sunday.” St. Patrick’s Avenue is where the church is located.

“Detectives from our Major Investigation Team have launched a murder investigation following the death of a man in Downpatrick,” District Commander Superintendent Norman Haslett said.

“Following a report of a deceased man at approximately 12 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 10, a 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody assisting with enquiries,” according to police.

It was reported to police at around 10:10 a.m. on Sunday that a man had walked into the church on St. Patrick’s Avenue and hit the priest in the head with a bottle before leaving.

Father Eddie McGee, spokesman for the Diocese of Down and Connor, told CNA: “The parish priest of Downpatrick, Canon John Murray, was approached earlier this morning by a gentleman asking him to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation on the way into the church, at which stage Canon John was attacked.”

“Canon Murray sustained a serious head injury and is currently in hospital receiving treatment. His situation remains serious but stable,” he said. “Obviously, our thoughts and prayers are with Canon John Murray.”

“It’s very concerning and disturbing that this attack occurred towards a priest who was vulnerable in the course of his ministry and service to the local community,” McGee told CNA.

McGee confirmed that Murray was due to retire as parish priest in the coming weeks and will continue to serve in the local family of parishes until then.

“As parish priest of Downpatrick, Canon Murray is very well known and very well liked and parishioners and others from across the community have been in contact today to assure him of their ongoing prayers and support at this time,” McGee said.

“The diocese has received the devastating and shocking news that another man in Downpatrick has been murdered in what appears to be a related incident,” McGee continued. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife and family and indeed all affected by this attack resulting in the loss of life.”

Appealing for anyone with further information to contact police, Detective Chief Inspector David McBurney said: “This was a completely shocking and brutal attack and has left the priest with a serious head injury.”

The deceased has been named locally by The Independent as Stephen Brannigan.

Twenty-four-year-old Father Miguel Tovar of the Diocese of Cartagena, Spain. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Diocese of Cartagena

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 9, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Father Miguel Tovar is 24 years old and one of the youngest priests in Spain. After his ordination on July 5 in the Diocese of Cartagena, he and his parents visited Rome and met Pope Leo XIV, who encouraged him to never lose “the joy of the priesthood.”

“What a great gift from the Lord, one month after my priestly ordination, to be able to greet the pope. The Holy Father encouraged me to be faithful and not to lose the joy of the priesthood in prayer,” Tovar wrote on Aug. 7 on X.

Tovar said that after telling the pope he had been ordained very recently, Pope Leo XIV told him: “Be faithful. Many priests lose their joy. Never lose the joy of the priesthood, which you will always find through prayer.”

Upon learning that Tovar’s parents had accompanied him to Rome, Leo XIV replied: “Are they [over] there? Tell them to come!” 

Tovar wrote that the pope “congratulated them for giving their 24-year-old son to the Church.”

The pontiff also said that he is familiar with Murcia, the region in which Tovar lives, and that he is praying for the young man from Murcia who was recently hospitalized in Rome. 

He then blessed the priest and his parents as well as the stole conferred at Tovar’s diaconal ordination.

Tovar’s journey to the priesthood

In an interview published days before his ordination, Tovar said: “When the Lord calls you, the fear can rise up that God is going to take everything away from you. But it’s quite the opposite. Over these years, I’ve seen that when you give your life to God, he gives you everything.”

Born in Torrealta, a small town in Murcia, Tovar grew up in a happy, Christian home with his parents, twin brother, and older sister.

In the interview, the priest shared that he felt God’s calling at age 13, but it wasn’t until he was 18, in 2019, that he finally entered the St. Fulgentius Major Seminary.

Tovar chose “His mercy endures forever” as his priestly motto.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Daniel O'Connell, lithograph attributed to R. Evan Sly (EP OCON-DA (17) II) from the National Library of Ireland. / Credit: National Library of Ireland

Dublin, Ireland, Aug 9, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Daniel O’Connell, known as “The Liberator,” was a pivotal figure in 19th-century Ireland, championing the cause of Catholic emancipation.

Opposed to violence, he advocated for Catholic rights through peaceful means, emphasizing dialogue and legal reform, and organizing mass demonstrations to rally public support and raise awareness about the injustices faced by Catholics.

“Daniel O’Connell’s achievement in forcing the British government to concede Catholic emancipation in 1829 was immense,” Bishop Niall Coll of Ossory told CNA. “The penal laws, a series of oppressive statutes enacted in the 17th and early 18th centuries that targeted the Catholic majority in Ireland, restricting their rights to own land, hold public office, and practice their religion were set aside.”

O’Connell’s efforts culminated in the passage of the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which allowed Catholics to sit in Parliament and hold public office and significantly transformed Irish politics.

O’Connell was born in 1775 in Caherciveen in rural Kerry. His parents had managed to maintain their land despite the penal laws, thanks to their remoteness, business sense, and help from Protestant neighbors. O’Connell’s earliest years, until he was 4, were spent with an Irish-speaking family that instilled in him an inherent understanding of Irish peasant life. 

After studying in France at the English Colleges in St. Omer and Douai during the French Revolution, he returned to Ireland, completed his studies, and was called to the bar. In 1802, then a successful barrister, he married a distant cousin, Mary O’Connell, and they had 12 children — seven of whom survived to adulthood. In 1823 he founded the Catholic Association with the express aim of securing emancipation.

O’Connell’s early experiences were critical to his political and social formation, according to Jesuit historian Father Fergus O’Donoghue, who told CNA that O’Connell’s exposure to European influences undoubtedly shaped his character, his opposition to violence, and his deep-seated opposition to tyranny.

“He witnessed the French Revolution, which appalled him and set his heart completely against violence,” O’Donoghue told CNA. “What Daniel O’Connell really did was produce a political sense in Ireland that was never previously generated. Irish Catholics lived in appalling poverty and were neglected. He energized them. He brought Church and laity together into politics and constitutionalism.”

O’Donoghue explained how O’Connell’s arousal of a nationwide Irish Catholic consciousness impacted politics and society but also had far-reaching consequences beyond Irish shores. 

“When Irish Catholics emigrated, which of course many were forced to do, many of them were already politically aware. That’s why Irish people got so rapidly into American politics and into Australian politics later.”

“He was part of the enormous revival of Irish Catholicism in the 19th century. Before the Act of Union, various relief acts had been passed so Catholics officially could become things like judges or sheriffs, but none really were appointed in numbers. He was blistering in highlighting the difference between the law and reality. He was liberal, which amazed people; he believed strongly in parliamentary democracy. Many Catholics were monarchists and tending to be absolutists and he was having none of that. Under no circumstances would he approve of violence.”

Coll told CNA how O’Connell’s personal reputation extended his influence worldwide: “The fact that he could remain a devoted and practicing Catholic — while supporting the separation of church and state, the ending of Anglican privileges and discrimination based on religious affiliation, and the extension of individual liberties, including those in the sphere of politics — made him a hero and inspiration to Catholic liberals in many European countries.”

Coll continued: “The fact that his political movement was based upon popular support and the mobilization of the mass of the people, while yet being nonviolent and orderly, gave proof that political agitation did not necessarily have to be anticlerical or bloody. The attention his movement and opinions received in the continental European press was remarkable, as were the number and distinction of European writers and political figures who visited Ireland with the express purpose of securing an audience with O’Connell.”

Coll agreed firmly with historians who believe no other Irish political figure of the 19th or early 20th century enjoyed such an international reputation as did O’Connell throughout his later public career. 

Among those whom O’Connell also influenced were Eamon de Valera, president of Ireland; Frederick Douglass, social reformer and slavery abolitionist in the United States; and Gen. Charles de Gaulle. Indeed, de Gaulle, when on an extended visit to Ireland, insisted on visiting Derrynane House in Kerry, the home of Daniel O’Connell. 

When asked how he knew about O’Connell, de Gaulle replied: “My grandmother wrote a book about O’Connell.” The grandmother in question was Joséphine de Gaulle (née Maillot), a descendant of the McCartans of County Down and his paternal grandmother, who wrote “Daniel O’Connell, Le Libérateur de l’Irlande” in 1887. De Gaulle’s father, Henri, was also a historian interested in O’Connell. 

In The Tablet, Dermot McCarthy, former secretary to the Office of the Irish Prime Minister, wrote that O’Connell’s primary legacy was “lifting a demoralized and impoverished Catholic people off their knees to recognize their inherent dignity and realize their capacity to be protagonists of their own destiny.”

Minister for Culture, Communications, and Sport Patrick O’Donovan said last month: “Daniel O’Connell was one of the most important figures in Irish political history, not just for what he achieved, but for how he achieved it. He believed in peaceful reform, in democracy, and in civil rights; ideas and concepts to which we should still aspire today.” 

However, in its official communiques praising O’Connell, the Irish government minister failed to mention the word “Catholic” even once. 

For O’Donoghue, the absence of any Catholic context is unsurprising given the prevailing secular attitudes among many of the country’s politicians. 

Bishop Fintan Monahan, bishop of Killaloe, visited O’Connell’s grave in Rome during the Jubilee for Youth, telling CNA: “In 1847, the Great Famine was at its most severe and O’Connell’s final speech in the House of Commons was an appeal for help for its victims. Due to his physical weakness, this final speech was barely audible.”

O’Connell died in Genoa on May 15, 1847, on the 17th anniversary of the first time he presented himself at the House of Commons.

It was hoped that his heart might be interred in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. However, Pope Pius IX feared offending the British government on whose goodwill Catholic missionaries depended in many parts of the world. A requiem Mass was offered for O’Connell in the Roman baroque basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle. The attendance included the future cardinal, now canonized saint, John Henry Newman. 

O’Connell had said he wished to bequeath “his soul to God, his body to Ireland, and his heart to Rome.”

St. John Henry Newman near the end of his life, in 1887. / Credit: Babouba, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 8, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

According to Father Francisco Javier Calvo, Pope Leo XIV’s recent announcement that St. John Henry Newman will be declared a doctor of the Church represents “enormous hope,” because his figure is called to “illuminate the paths of the Church in the 21st century.”

Calvo is a member of the research committee of the John Henry Newman Chair at the Catholic University of Ávila in Spain.

The expert told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that it is no coincidence that Pope Leo XIV decided to name him a doctor of the Church, since St. Augustine was the prime source of the English saint’s theology.

“It is very significant that he is the first doctor of the Church proclaimed during his pontificate. As an Augustinian, Leo XIV recognized in Newman one of his own. Both share a spirituality centered on an interior encounter with God, on conscience as the place of dialogue with the Lord,” he explained.

St. John Henry Newman, Calvo noted, was a great scholar of the Church Fathers, especially St. Augustine.

In fact, the best-known aspect of Newman’s theological and philosophical work is his commitment to a “moral and upright conscience, which he defines as the natural sphere of encounter with the voice of God and is one of the central themes of his theology.”

“This connects deeply with the Augustinian tradition, from the “Confessions” to the “Soliloquies,” he noted.

Calvo also lauded Newman as a man “of profound truth and profound faith,” whose conversion to Catholicism in 1845 was the result of a journey marked by docility in the light of the Holy Spirit.

“Everything he did in his life — including his journey of conversion — he lived with absolute moral integrity. He himself said that he asked the Lord not for light for his entire life but for the next step, and the strength to take it,” the priest emphasized.

This attitude of constant discernment, Calvo added, is particularly inspiring in a time like the present, where there is an urgent need to recover a spirituality guided by listening to God and not by one’s personal pet projects. 

After his conversion he was viewed by Catholics as an ‘infiltrator’

Following his conversion, St. John Henry Newman faced both misunderstandings from the Anglican world and misgivings in the Catholic world, where he was even seen as an “infiltrator” or “a kind of Trojan horse.” Despite this, “Pope Leo XIII dispelled those suspicions by appointing him a cardinal,” Calvo explained.

One of Newman’s greatest legacies was his firm commitment to the formation of the laity. As rector of the Catholic University of Ireland in Dublin, he promoted not only the training of good professionals but, above all, of “good Christians who would bear witness to their faith in their environment,” the expert explained. This vision, which seems obvious today after the Second Vatican Council, was profoundly innovative at the time.

Newman was also ahead of his time and had to face the challenge of responding to rationalist schools of thought and English empiricism, represented by figures such as Hume and Locke. “He knew how to respond from a deeply reasoned faith, taking up the philosophical presuppositions of modernity, but rooted in Augustinian spirituality,” Calvo emphasized.

But beyond his intellectual brilliance, Newman was, above all, a witness to holiness. “Being a Christian is a personal encounter with Christ that transforms one’s entire life. Newman understood it that way, drawing inspiration from the radical commitment of the early Christians, the witness of the martyrs, and the example of the saints,” he noted.

In this regard, Calvo recalled Newman’s motto, “Cor ad cor loquitur” (“Heart speaks to heart”), and said: “Faith is transmitted from person to person, through the attractiveness of a person’s life. It is not treatises but witnesses that evangelize.”

Newman’s proclamation as a doctor of the Church not only recognizes his holiness but also proposes his thought as a sure guide for believers today.

“We learn from his life, but also from his writings,” Calvo noted. “His intellectual journey, his theological and philosophical discernment, are a clear light for Christians to grow in their faith in this complex world, which so desperately needs authentic teachers and true saints.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

“St. Dominic of Guzman” by Claudio Coello, circa 1685. / Credit: Claudio Coello, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rome Newsroom, Aug 8, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The first image to greet visitors to the basilica containing the tomb of St. Dominic in Bologna, Italy, is a mosaic of the saint next to a dog carrying a flaming torch in its mouth.

This is not a depiction of a pyromaniacal game of fetch but a reference to a dream that foretold the 13th-century preacher’s mission in the world — to be the bearer of divine fire across Europe, illuminating the darkness of heresy and sin with truth and charity.

“When St. Dominic’s mother, Blessed Jane of Aza, was pregnant, she had a dream of a dog with a torch in its mouth running around the world and setting everything on fire. She went to the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos and asked a monk what it meant. He replied that the child in her womb would be a great preacher who would set the world ablaze with the fire of his words,” Dominican Father Ezra Sullivan, professor at the Angelicum University in Rome, told CNA.

“In fact, the word ‘Dominican’ is a play on the Latin, Domini canes, which means ‘dogs of the Lord,’” Dominican Father Thomas Petri, former dean and vice president of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., explained.

Throughout history St. Dominic has been depicted in paintings and statues standing beside a canine companion.

“One source recounts that the dog Blessed Jane saw in her vision was a greyhound. That seems right to me,” Petri said. “St. Dominic should be associated with breeds that are fast and useful for herding.”

“Imitating Christ himself, St. Dominic is a hound nipping at your heels to bring you to God,” he added.

“In the early 13th century, the Church was experiencing increasing devotion among the lay faithful that was unmatched by the clergy. At a time when bishops, priests, and monks were living extravagantly and rarely preaching, St. Dominic came to see that the Church needed priests who lived in poverty but who were also preachers of grace and truth, especially in the face of heretical cults that were leaching the faithful away from the Church of Jesus Christ,” Petri explained.

St. Dominic Guzman was born in Caleruega, Spain, on Aug. 8, 1170. Throughout his life, he is said to have converted some 100,000 people through his preaching missions. He spread the devotion to the rosary and played a key role in doctrinal debates combating the Albigensian heresy, a revival of Manichaeism, which had taken hold in southern France.

Dominic founded the Order of Preachers — known as the Dominicans — in France in 1216, adapting the Rule of St. Augustine in obedience to the pope with an emphasis on study and community life in poverty. He died in Bologna, Italy, after several weeks of illness on Aug. 6, 1221.

Pope Benedict XVI said in February 2010 that St. Dominic “reminds us that in the heart of the Church, a missionary fire must always burn.”

“St. Dominic was given the grace not only to have a fervent zeal and love for Jesus Christ, especially Christ crucified, but also the wisdom to preach the Gospel with force and conviction,” Petri said.

Sullivan noted: “It was also said that ‘he always spoke either about God or to God,’ and therefore his words were like fiery darts that always hit their targets.”

St. Catherine of Siena, a third order Dominican, is frequently quoted as saying: “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”

However, Petri explained that a more accurate translation of what St. Catherine wrote in a letter in her dying days is: “If you are what you ought to be, you will set fire to all Italy, and not only there.”

She wrote this to her follower Stefano Maconi because she was “concerned that he was tepid in his devotion and pleaded with him to go to Rome to light the fire of divine charity there amid the turmoil of schism and infidelity the city was experiencing,” Petri said.

St. Catherine of Siena spoke of cultivating the “divine fire” as “cultivating the charity of God in one’s soul,” he explained.

“The way we cultivate charity is by committing ourselves to be with Christ in prayer, in study, at work, in the home, and at every other moment in our day,” he said.

“Most especially, however, such communion with Christ is nourished and strengthened by receiving the sacrament of charity — the holy Eucharist — in which the One who is charity itself comes into us and lights our souls aflame in love for him and for our neighbor.”

This story was first published on Aug. 8, 2019, and has been updated.