Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

Tourists take photos as they visit the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona on Aug. 2, 2025. / Credit: Manaure QUINTERO/AFP

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 31, 2025 / 17:57 pm (CNA).

The Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) minor basilica in Barcelona is now the tallest church in the world, standing at 535 feet, surpassing Ulm, Germany’s main church, whose construction began in the 14th century.

According to the Sagrada Familia Expiatory Church Construction Board Foundation, as reported Oct. 30 by the Archdiocese of Barcelona, ​​“the first element that forms part of the cross on the tower of Jesus Christ” was installed, marking the beginning of the final phase of construction of the church’s central tower.

This latest addition consists of the lower portion of the cross, measuring over 20 feet high and weighing 24 tons. “With a double-twist geometry, the lower portion has a square shape at the base that transforms into an octagonal shape at the top,” whose exterior is “clad with white-glazed ceramic and glass, materials that stand out for their reflective properties and resistance to atmospheric conditions,” the news brief explains.

The tower of Jesus Christ is the tallest of the central towers of the church designed by Antoni Gaudí, who died a century ago. The completion of this structure “will be a historic milestone for Sagrada Familia and a tribute to its architect.”

More than 140 years of history

The first stone of Sagrada Familia Basilica was laid on March 19, 1882, according to the design of the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar. The following year, Gaudí took over the project, modifying it according to his architectural genius and renowned Modernist style. From 1914, Gaudí dedicated himself exclusively to this church until his death on June 10, 1926.

On April 14 of this year, Pope Francis declared the architect venerable, in accordance with the criteria set by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

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

null / Credit: Shower of Roses

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 31, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The celebration of “Holywins” (“Holiness wins“), is an initiative that originated in Paris in 2002 with the aim of celebrating the eve of All Saints on Oct. 31 in a Christian way. Over time, this Catholic celebration has been spreading to other places in the world.

On that day, parishes and Catholic communities gather to celebrate Mass, participate in Eucharistic adoration and prayer meetings, and take part in recreational activities to encourage the participation of children, young people, and their families.

It’s customary for children to dress up as their favorite saints, to discuss the exemplary lives of the saints, and to remind children of the call to sainthood. In addition, games are usually played, lively songs are sung, and food and sweets are shared.

The Diocese of Alcalá de Henares in Spain has been putting on a Holywins program for children and youths since 2009 that includes games, workshops, a procession to the cathedral, activities for the evening, and Eucharistic adoration.

Here are some ideas to celebrate Holywins with your family.

1. Dress up as your favorite saints.

A large investment isn’t needed to make a costume, and with the help of some fabrics or household items, you can create good characterizations of your favorite saints.

For example, to dress as St. Catherine of Siena, try a long white or cream-colored dress that represents the habit of the Dominican order, and a black cloth in the form of a veil used by nuns to cover their heads. In addition, a crown of dry branches can be made for the head and a cross and a small bouquet of lilies can be carried in the hand.

To dress up as St. Rose of Lima, consider using the same habit suggested for St. Catherine of Siena, but change the crown of dry branches for one of red roses.

To dress up as St. Juan Diego, all that is needed is a large white or cream-colored blanket or sheet to wrap around the body and on the front can be placed an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with some red roses at her feet.

To represent St. Dominic Savio, the patron saint of children’s choirs, you only need brown pants, a green jacket, a white shirt, and a bow tie.

For St. Ignatius of Loyola, a black robe is all that is needed; and for St. Francis of Assisi, a brown robe.

You can find more ideas for costumes here.

2. Share themed foods and treats.

A Holywins celebration is usually accompanied by food, so take advantage of this day to cook with your family and prepare desserts related to favorite saints. As you enjoy the meal, share with your family stories of or quotes by these saints.

For example, for St. Juan Gualberto, the patron saint of parks and forest workers, you could make chocolate cupcakes decorated with white frosting and small trees made with chocolate or stretchy dough. In the case of St. Rose of Lima, you could make cupcakes with frosting in the shape of red roses.

For St. Anthony the Abbot, the patron saint of domestic animals, or St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and environmentalists, you could make or buy cookies in the shape of animals or leaves or trees.

3. Come up with playful activities about the saints.

In addition to the prepared desserts, you might fill large containers or cups with candy with each one wrapped in a piece of paper that has a quote from a saint written on it. You can also fill cups with candy and place a lollipop stick or a short stick inside with the image of a saint glued to it.

If you have pumpkins, draw a star or a cross on them and fill them with candy that has quotes from your favorite saints wrapped around them. In this way, the scary faces that are typically carved on pumpkins will be avoided and a more Christian meaning will be given to this activity.

Later, you could tell the story of some saints or watch movies of saints as a family — perhaps animated ones for children — and then ask questions to see how much family members understood. With those who already know various stories of the saints, you could play charades. Those who answer correctly can be rewarded with a small prize.

You could also have the smallest children in your family make a dramatization or performance of the story, episode, or anecdote of one of their favorite saints. This activity could be more fun if they have a costume or something associated with the saint.

In addition, each member of the family could be encouraged to draw his or her favorite saint or make origami or crafts representing his or her patron saint or some characteristic element of the saint. Afterward, each member could explain why he or she chose that saint and share a favorite quote of the saint with the others.

4. Decorate your home altar and pray as a family.

Set up a family altar in your home if you don’t already have one. This is an excellent place to pray the rosary as a family, and this devotional practice is better done with others than individually.

Images of saints are often placed on altars for veneration and can also be very educational.

Remembering that this space in the home should be special and encourage recollection for prayer, take advantage of this special day and decorate it as a family with images of your favorite saints and flowers for the Virgin Mary, whether natural or made with paper using the origami technique. 

Then, pray the rosary with your family, asking God for holiness for every member, and dedicate a prayer to the saint or saints of your devotion. Each family member could read a mystery of the rosary, and at the end everyone could sing a Marian hymn.

The concept of Holywins

For last year’s celebration of Holywins, the Diocese of Alcalá de Henares explained that “the phonetic similarity with the word ‘Halloween’ is not accidental, since Holywins seeks to help reinforce the Christian festival of All Saints in the face of [an] increasing” pagan influence on Halloween.

The diocese pointed out that although “Halloween means ‘All Hallows Eve’ in English, currently this celebration has no relation to the Christian faith. On the contrary, its way of approaching life and death, good and evil, is completely different from that of the Gospel of Christ and the tradition of his Church.”

Holywins is an initiative that seeks to encourage breaking with “the cult of death and the exaltation of the monstrous or ugly that it brings with it, since what is proper to Christians is to celebrate the triumph of life and promote beauty and [goodness],” the diocese said.

Holywins seeks to “convey the same message: Life is beautiful and its goal is heaven; there are many who have already arrived and we are all called to share their happiness, since we can all be saints,” the diocese pointed out.

The diocese also noted that “with the costumes of the living dead that fill the streets of the cities on Oct. 31” for the celebration of Halloween, “more and more dioceses are joining the celebration of Holywins.”

“We Catholics want to return to this day its true meaning and celebrate all those who heroically followed Jesus Christ, with a luminous feast of All Saints that overflows with joy and hope,” it concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, on Oct. 25, 2022, and has been translated, adapted, and updated by CNA.

Shrine of the Queen Mother in Atibaia, Brazil. / Credit: Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 30, 2025 / 16:50 pm (CNA).

On the occasion of the centenary of the Secular Institute of the Sisters of Mary of Schoenstatt, Germany, Pope Leo XIV has granted a plenary indulgence to anyone who visits the original Schoenstatt shrine or any shrine, church, or chapel under the care of this community.

The indulgence can be obtained throughout the community’s jubilee, which began on Oct. 1 and will conclude on Nov. 4, 2026.

“For our community, this gift of indulgence in our jubilee year is an invitation from God, through the Church, for a deeper purification of our hearts,” the Schoenstatt Movement said on its website, adding: “We trust that God’s grace will sustain us in a more perceptible way at the beginning of a new era for our family.”

The decree from the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See states that the indulgence is granted “to members of the institute and to all the faithful who, moved by repentance and love, unite themselves to the spiritual goals of the Jubilee Year 2025.”

The faithful are invited to make a pilgrimage to one of the aforementioned places and spend time there in contemplation.

To obtain the indulgence, which can also be obtained on behalf of a deceased person, the following conditions must be met: sacramental confession, reception of the Eucharist, prayer for the pope’s intentions — according to the decree, the Our Father, the Creed, the invocation of Mary, Mother of God, as Queen of Peace and Mother of Mercy — and performing an act of penance and a work of charity.

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

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin meets with the head of government of Andorra, Xavier Espot, on Oct. 22, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of government of Andorra

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 30, 2025 / 10:09 am (CNA).

A delegation from the Andorran government met on Oct. 22 with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin to continue discussions on the decriminalization of abortion in Andorra, a country whose co-heads of state are the bishop of the Diocese of Urgell in Spain, Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The boundaries of the diocese also encompass Andorra, which is a small principality situated in the Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, roughly halfway between Toulouse and Barcelona.

The prime minister of Andorra who heads the executive branch, Xavier Espot, and the minister of institutional relations, Ladislau Baró, traveled to the Vatican, accompanied by the country’s ambassador to the Holy See, Carlos Álvarez.

The meeting, according to the Andorran government, took place “within the framework of the institutional dialogue between the two parties to address the process of decriminalizing abortion in Andorra.”

According to the executive branch of the small country, “both delegations reaffirmed their shared commitment to continue working constructively with the aim of having a draft legislative text in the coming months.”

At the same time, it was acknowledged that “this is a matter of great legal, institutional, and social complexity, requiring careful technical development,” and therefore both parties “maintain their desire to find a solution.”

This complexity relates to the Andorran Constitution, under which the bishop of Urgell and the president of France serve as co‑princes who sanction and enact the laws approved by the General Council (Parliament) with the required countersignature and within eight to 15 days of approval. The Constitution also allows the co‑princes to request a prior ruling on constitutionality before sanctioning a law.

“Decrimnalization” typically means that abortion remains a crime but only after a specific number of weeks of pregnancy. Prior to that time frame it is unpunishable. 

Abortion in the Andorran penal code

Title II of the Andorran penal code deals with “crimes against prenatal human life,” distinguishing between “nonconsensual,” “consensual,” and “negligent” abortion.

Article 107 on nonconsensual abortion establishes “a prison sentence of four to 10 years and disqualification from practicing any health care profession for up to 10 years.”

The same penalties apply if consent has been obtained “through violence, intimidation, or abuse of the victim’s vulnerability” due to age, disability, or similar circumstances. Furthermore, the article establishes that even attempted (unsuccessful) abortion is punishable.

Article 108, referring to consensual abortion, provides for whoever perpetrates the crime “a prison sentence of three months to three years and disqualification to exercise any health profession for a period of up to five years.” 

In addition, the code states that “the woman who causes her abortion or allows another person to cause it will be punished with a light sentence,” typically less than three months. 

With regard to abortion caused by negligence, Article 109 establishes a brief sentence or a fine of up to 30,000 euros ($34,760) and disqualification for a period of three years if the abortion is the result of “professional negligence.”

In this section it is also specified that “the pregnant woman will not be punished for this offense.”

Parolin’s visit to Andorra

In September 2023, Parolin visited Andorra, where he went before the media along with Espot and stated that this legal amendment “is a very delicate and complex matter that we must address with great discretion and wisdom.”

“For the Holy See, the principle of defending life at all its stages is fundamental. And this principle is accompanied by the desire to be close to, and to help, all those who are in difficulty,” the cardinal explained.

Parolin added that this affirmation of principles “also entails concrete actions; in this case, for example, toward pregnant women who encounter difficulties in having a child, in giving life to their child.”

The Vatican secretary of state pointed out that amending the penal status of abortion in Andorra also involves “the problem of the constitutional system” under which the bishop of Urgell is the co-prince.

“It’s not easy to reconcile these two aspects,” the cardinal acknowledged, adding: “We are working, we are reflecting; we are further studying [the matter]. These are things that cannot be resolved overnight; they require a great deal of participation, a great deal of commitment, and a great deal of effort.”

“We hope to find a solution that is satisfactory for everyone,” the Vatican secretary of state concluded.

The role of the bishop of Urgell in sanctioning Andorran laws

The constitution of Andorra establishes in Article 45 subsection 1g  that the co-princes of Andorra “with the countersignature of the head of government (prime minister) or, where appropriate, the president of the General Council, who assume political responsibility,” are the ones who “sanction and promulgate the laws” within a period of between eight and 15 days after their approval by the General Council of Andorra.

The reform also establishes the possibility that the co-princes, as an “act freely at their disposal,” may require a “prior ruling on the constitutionality of laws” (Article 46, subsection 1e). 

ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, contacted the government of Andorra for more information on the reform and its potential implications for the bishop of Urgell but received no response. The Diocese of Urgell declined to comment.

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

Archbishop Georg Gänswein speaks at a conference on the Šiluva Declaration in Šiluva, Lithuania, on Sept. 4, 2024. / Credit: Juozas Kamenskas

Šiluva, Lithuania, Oct 29, 2025 / 15:59 pm (CNA).

Twenty years after then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger warned of a “dictatorship of relativism” on the eve of his election as Pope Benedict XVI, his former secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, echoed that warning at a recent conference in Lithuania.

The former prefect of the papal household and longtime personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI, Gänswein drew deeply on the late pontiff’s philosophy as he delivered the keynote address at this year’s conference, which brought together academics, civic leaders, public intellectuals, and clergy to discuss the principles of the 2021 Šiluva Declaration. 

The declaration advocates the defense of fundamental human rights, the fostering of virtue, and the promotion of societal common good. It recognizes the importance of a society built upon the pillars of truth, family values, human dignity, and faith in God and has since become a moral reference point for Catholic social thinkers in Lithuania.

Gänswein’s lecture offered a rich philosophical and theological reflection on faith, reason, and relativism, aspects that he described as a “constant theme in Ratzinger’s work.” The archbishop, who now serves as nuncio to the Baltic states, warned that when either faith or reason is diminished, that inevitably leads to “pathologies and the disintegration of the human person.”

This is the third such conference dedicated to reflecting on the Šiluva Declaration, published on Sept. 12, 2021, during the town’s annual Marian festival. Šiluva is the location of a Marian shrine dedicated to one of Europe’s earliest approved apparitions.

Archbishop Kęstutis Kėvalas delivered the conference’s opening remarks, urging vigilance against temptations to experiment with human nature and dignity. He also reminded attendees that the Marian shrine at Šiluva symbolizes fidelity to God’s order in creation. 

“The holy place of Šiluva invites respect for the order that the Creator has given to this world,” he said.

Gänswein said that in the face of today’s great challenges, such as technical thinking and globalization, the first step must be to recover the full scope of reason. He described true reason as inherently truthful, contrasting it with relativism, which he called “an expression of weak and narrow-minded thinking … based on the false pride of believing humans cannot recognize the truth and the false humility of refusing to accept it.” 

“The truth sets us free,” he added, referencing John 8:32 and noting that truth serves as the standard by which humans must measure themselves and that embracing it requires humility.

Gänswein concluded by warning that relativism — the defining mindset of modernity, which he described as “a creeping poison” — ultimately undermines human freedom. Driven by self-sufficiency and amplified by social media, relativism blinds people to truth and their ultimate purpose.

Humanity’s true goal, he affirmed, is “to come to the knowledge of the truth, which is God, and thus to attain eternal life.” His address was met with sustained applause.

The conference also featured a range of thought-provoking talks on Lithuania’s moral and political identity, the challenges of liberal democracy, post-Soviet societal changes, and the role of faith and family in public life. It concluded with a panel discussion on Europe’s moral direction, freedom of speech, and the renewal of Christian values in society.

Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of Vilnius recalled Pope Leo XIV’s words that the Church “can never be exempted from the duty to speak the truth about man and the world, using, when necessary, even harsh language that may initially cause misunderstandings.” He stressed that all Christians, including those in public life, have a duty to defend the truth, which he described as “not an abstract idea but a path along which a person discovers true freedom.”

The conference was organized jointly by the Lithuanian civic group Laisvos visuomenės institutas (Institute of a Free Society), the Lithuanian Christian Workers’ Trade Union, and the Faculty of Catholic Theology at Vytautas Magnus University.

A new stamp issued by the Irish postal service honors Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who saved 6,500 news in Rome during World War II. / Credit: An Post

Dublin, Ireland, Oct 29, 2025 / 13:51 pm (CNA).

The Irish postal service has released a new postage stamp marking the 100th anniversary of the ordination of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, savior of 6,500 Jews in Rome during World War II.

O’Flaherty used his position in the Roman Curia to hide fugitives from Nazi forces for the duration of their occupation of Rome from September 1943 to June 1944. It is estimated that he saved 6,500 Jews by hiding them in monasteries, convents, Vatican living quarters, and even Castel Gandolfo before smuggling them to safety.

Every evening, he stood in defiance of the Nazis, taking up his position in the half shadows on the steps at St. Peter’s. The German occupiers, unable to cross into neutral Vatican soil, could only watch in frustration and anger as O’Flaherty audaciously and courageously greeted a succession of fugitives.

To the Germans, O’Flaherty was elusive, enigmatic, and provocative, becoming the most wanted man in the Eternal City. He used disguise and subterfuge to move outside the Vatican at night, visiting those he helped. He was never apprehended.

Col. Herbert Kappler, the SS commander in Rome, mounted several unsuccessful attempts to abduct and murder O’Flaherty. Once, a Gestapo hit squad was reportedly apprehended in St. Peter’s Basilica by a team of four Swiss guards who, together with some Yugoslavian refugees, put manners on the Germans before ejecting them, disheveled and bruised, from Vatican territory.

Postwar, Kappler was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Ardeatine Massacre. O’Flaherty was his only visitor in the Gaeta prison outside Rome, calling every month. O’Flaherty baptized Kappler into the Catholic faith in 1959.

Gregory Peck stars as Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty in the 1983 movie “The Scarlet and the Black,” with Christopher Plummer featured as Kappler.

The Irish priest’s network was established without his ecclesiastical superiors’ permission, though Pope Pius XII eventually became aware that something was happening within the Vatican walls.

He earned the nickname “The Pimpernel of the Vatican” after the fictional character the Scarlet Pimpernel, a daring English aristocrat who rescued French nobles from the guillotine during the French Revolution using disguises and daring rescues.

O’Flaherty was born in County Cork, Ireland, and his family moved to Killarney, where his father was steward of Killarney Golf Club. There, the young O’Flaherty was a scratch handicap golfer. Following ordination in Rome in 1925, he served in Egypt, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Czechoslovakia as a Vatican diplomat before returning to Rome and a position in the Holy Office.

The “Dictionary of Irish Biography” says of O’Flaherty: “Despite his rough-edged demeanor, his skills at bridge and golf admitted him to the highest echelons of Roman society … After serving as secretary to the papal nuncio to Allied prisoner-of-war camps in northern Italy, O’Flaherty began to assist Jews, dissidents, deserting Italian soldiers, and others fleeing from the Italian fascist government.”

Once an “ordained” Satanic priest, Bartolo Longo underwent one of the most dramatic conversions in recent Church history. He was canonized a saint on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Oct 28, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

St. Bartolo Longo — a former Satanist “priest” whose remarkable conversion led him to create a Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary and spread devotion to the prayer — was canonized by Pope Leo XIV on Oct. 19.

In addition to his example of faith and Marian devotion, Bartolo Longo (Bartholomew in English) can also be a model for those struggling with their mental health, Dominican Father Joseph-Anthony Kress told EWTN News.

Kress, the Dominican order’s promotor of the rosary, said Longo “continued to struggle with mental health, and he continued to struggle with suicidal ideations even after his conversion.”

“As a priest, I’ve seen many people that think that after they convert … that mental health shouldn’t be an issue anymore,” the Dominican said. “But [Bartolo Longo] is a great witness to somebody who struggles through that.”

Originally born into a devout Roman Catholic family, Longo fell away from his faith while studying law in Naples in the 1860s — a period in which the Catholic Church in Italy faced opposition from a nationalist movement fighting for Italian unification. Most of the main leaders of the “Unification” movement were Freemasons who held strong anti-Catholic ideas.

The Catholic Church was also fighting against the growing popularity of the occult, which had a strong presence in Naples at the time.

Longo himself became involved in a Satanist cult and eventually claimed to have been “ordained” as a Satanist “priest.”

However, after Longo struggled for several years with anxiety and depression, including suicidal thoughts, a university professor from his hometown, Vincenzo Pepe, urged him to abandon Satanism and introduced him to his future confessor, Dominican Father Alberto Radente.

Under the guidance of Radente, Pepe, religious sister (and now saint) Caterina Volpicelli, and the woman who later became his wife, Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco, Longo came back to his Catholic faith.

One defining moment in Longo’s reversion took place in October 1872, according to Archbishop Tommaso Caputo of Pompei, Italy.

“Longo arrived in Pompeii to take care of the properties of the countess [De Fusco] and, walking through those streets — dangerous because of the presence of bandits and malaria — he felt an inner inspiration: ‘If you seek salvation, spread the rosary. It is Mary’s promise. Those who spread the rosary are saved!’ That day, the young lawyer promised himself that he would never leave that valley [of Pompeii] without first spreading the prayer of the rosary,” Caputo told CNA’s Italian-language news partner, ACI Stampa.

“It all began that day,” the bishop continued. “Longo began by catechizing the peasants; he then renovated the small parish church of the Holy Savior and, on the advice of Bishop Giuseppe Formisano of Nola, Italy, decided to build a new church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary — this church became the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii.”

Kress said that, despite turning away from the occult, Longo continued to struggle with his mental health: Whenever he would be “on the very brink of despair, he recalled the promise of our Blessed Mother to St. Dominic that anyone who promotes the rosary will be saved. And so it was the promises that gave him enough hope to persevere through those dark moments.”

After his conversion, Longo “began to actually go back to the exact places that he participated in these occult activities,” Kress said. “And now, being very firmly rooted in his faith and his devotion to the Blessed Mother would … stand up in these occult practices, seances and things like that, and stand up and with a rosary in his hand and claim these moments for the Blessed Mother and encourage all that were participating to reject their past, reject their ways, and turn to the Blessed Mother for protection and happiness.”

Longo, who became a Third Order Dominican in 1871, “is highly relevant today, because after his conversion, he lived his life deeply rooted in the Gospel,” Caputo said.

Three years after first receiving the divine inspiration to spread devotion to the rosary, Longo received the image of Our Lady of the Rosary that became the centerpiece of the Catholic shrine in Pompeii.

The image “was a worn, battered canvas. It arrived in Pompeii on a humble manure cart, but according to the man we now recognize as an ‘apostle of the rosary,’ who was immediately disheartened by the condition of the icon, it became more beautiful every day,” Caputo recounted.

The bishop of Pompeii recalled the many evangelical and charitable works in the town by Longo and his wife, including the foundation of a girls’ orphanage and institutions for children of prisoners.

“Around the shrine, whose first stone was laid on May 8, 1876, and which was consecrated in 1891, roads, squares, services, a tram line, the railway station, the post office, and workers’ houses sprang up. Longo did a lot, but he always considered himself, evangelically, a ‘useless servant.’ For him, everything was the work of Our Lady of the Rosary and her powerful intercession,” Caputo said.

“At the root of every achievement, at the foundation of the work in Pompeii, was always the holy rosary, a wonderful synthesis of the Gospel, contemplation of the face of Christ the Savior through the eyes of the heavenly Mother,” he added.

Longo died in Pompeii in 1926. His last words were: “My only desire is to see Mary who saved me and who will save me from the clutches of Satan.”

“Even today, in Pompeii, everything reminds us of his name and his teachings,” Caputo said.

Veronica Giacometti, a reporter for ACI Stampa, CNA’s Italian-language news partner, contributed to this report.

Vladimir Putin, president of Russia expressed concern about the ongoing internal problem of “falling birth rates” in October 2025. / Credit: FotoField/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 27, 2025 / 17:08 pm (CNA).

Russian President Vladimir Putin is voicing concern about the ongoing internal problem of “falling birth rates” in his own country and suggesting state action to address the issue.

Putin said in an Oct. 23 meeting with the Council for the Implementation of State Demographic and Family Policy that drops in birth rates have become “a global trend and a global challenge in the modern world” that is especially affecting economically developed countries, “and Russia is unfortunately no exception.”

Russia, he noted, has had “demographic pitfalls” from losses in World War II and problems that coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Though he did not mention the ongoing war with Ukraine, Russia has also lost between 137,000 and 228,000 soldiers in the war approaching its fourth year, according to an analysis by The Economist.

Putin said some countries respond to falling birth rates with “uncontrolled, and even chaotic migration to replace the native population” but that Russia’s approach would be different.

“Our choice is unequivocal,” the president said. “We support the family as the fundamental basis of Russian society and aim to protect and preserve genuine family values and traditions, which have united and strengthened our country for centuries.”

The country’s fertility rate is less than 1.5 children per woman — which is far less than the 2.1 births per woman that’s needed to simply maintain a nation’s population. It’s less than half of what Putin sees as his ideal, which is that “families with three or more children should be seen as a standard and natural way of life in our country.”

Russia is the ninth most populous country in the world, but it has dropped from 147.6 million people in 1990 to about 146.1 million today, according to The Independent. The latter number includes 2 million people gained from the annexation and occupation of Crimea.

Putin said “no pressure should be exerted” to force couples to have children, because it is “a private and personal matter.” Yet, he said Russia should ensure young people “would sincerely aspire to a happy motherhood, would aim to effectively raise their children, and that they would feel confident that the state will support them whenever necessary.”

“It is now very important … to promote and uphold the internal attitude that I have mentioned … so that the desire to create a family, to marry and to have many children becomes prevalent in the public mentality,” Putin said.

State solutions to incentivize families

Putin sees the government as an essential partner in addressing the falling birth rates. He noted Russia’s low-interest mortgages and flat-rate benefits for low-income families and an initiative scheduled for early next year to reduce income tax for low-income families raising at least two children.

Another concern Putin noted is that young people postpone starting families when they focus on studying or their early career. He said young people should “not have to choose one path over another” and highlighted the country’s increase in pregnancy and childbirth benefits for full-time students, along with some universities offering day care. 

“Fatherhood and motherhood are a source of joy, and there is no need to postpone happiness,” Putin said. “That is what truly matters.”

Putin noted that housing expansions and better infrastructure are also needed, along with the promotion of “fundamental value-based attitudes” and engagement with cultural figures and the mass media.

Concerns of Orthodox and Catholic leaders

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill has similarly expressed concerns about the declining birth rates in the country. Last year, he highlighted the “tragedy” of abortion as a contributing factor.

Putin did not mention abortion at last week’s meeting. In Russia, elective abortion is legal up to the 12th week of pregnancy, but the government has banned promoting “child-free propaganda,” and many regions have banned people from pressuring women to have abortions.

Last year, Kirill sent letters to encourage women early in their pregnancies to carry their unborn children until birth. He wished them “good health, peace of mind, and many blessings from Christ, the giver of life” and discussed the blessing of children.

Earlier this month, Pope Leo XIV expressed concern about declining birth rates in Italy when he met with Italian President Sergio Mattarella. He urged a “concerted effort” to promote family and protect life “in all its phases.”

“In particular, I wish to emphasize the importance of guaranteeing all families the indispensable support of dignified work, in fair conditions and with due attention to the needs related to motherhood and fatherhood,” Leo said. “Let us do everything possible to give confidence to families — especially young families — so that they may look to the future with serenity and grow in harmony.”

Gertrude Detzel (1903–1971), born in the Caucasus region of the Russian Empire, was later deported to Kazakhstan and became a key figure in the underground Catholic community. / Credit: Diocese of Karaganda

Vatican City, Oct 27, 2025 / 15:23 pm (CNA).

A small delegation from Kazakhstan has brought to the Vatican two sealed boxes containing more than 30 pounds of documents, testimonies, and accounts of miracles for the cause of Servant of God Gertrude Detzel — a laywoman who kept the Catholic faith alive through decades of Soviet persecution. The materials, delivered to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints on Oct. 21, mark the start of the Roman phase of the cause of the first laywoman from Central Asia to reach Rome.

“It was a very warm welcome,” said Auxiliary Bishop Yevgeny Zinkovskiy of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, who accompanied the dossier to Rome as notary of the diocesan process. “Amid so many causes, it was moving to see how our distant story from Kazakhstan was received with open arms. The universal Church has now welcomed Gertrude — we have placed her in its hands.”

Detzel, born in 1903 into a family of ethnic Germans in the Caucasus region of Russia, was deported to Kazakhstan during Stalin’s regime. She endured forced-labor camps — sent there because of her ethnicity — but would be imprisoned again later for another reason: her missionary zeal in spreading the faith.

“Even in prison, she couldn’t stop speaking about God,” said Bishop Joseph Werth, who was born in Karaganda and personally knew Detzel before serving as bishop in Novosibirsk, Russia. “When Stalin died and the time came to release prisoners, the guards reportedly said, ‘Let her go first — otherwise she will convert everyone here.’ That was the impression she left — she could not help but evangelize.”

After more than a decade of forced labor and imprisonment — including four years in Soviet prison for her faith — Detzel settled in Karaganda in 1956, drawn by its strong Catholic community. “She didn’t think about where she could live better,” said Bishop Adelio Dell’Oro, who oversaw the diocesan phase of her cause in Karaganda. “She thought about where she could serve — she wanted to be where there was a Catholic community.”

Even as a child, Detzel’s life revolved around faith. Werth recalled: “When she was little, Gertrude was sad that she’d been born a girl and couldn’t become a priest. The priest told her, ‘One day you will understand.’ And indeed — thanks to her, the flame of faith remained alive in the camps and later in Karaganda.”

As an adult, Detzel became a catechist and leader among the faithful — baptizing children, preparing them for the sacraments, and leading prayers when priests were absent. Each gathering carried risk; discovery could mean another arrest.

“She formed a whole generation of believers — not only laypeople but also priests and consecrated men and women,” Werth said. “I myself was taught the faith by her.”

For Dell’Oro, Detzel’s story carries a message beyond Kazakhstan.

“During the Soviet regime, people were forced to live as if God did not exist,” he said. “Today, no one forbids us to believe — yet we often live as if God does not matter. Gertrude reminds us that faith must again become the center of life — in persecution or in freedom alike.”

Interest in Detzel’s holiness first surfaced during the bishops of Central Asia’s “ad limina” visit to Rome in 2019, when Pope Francis urged them to preserve the memory of those who kept the faith alive “in silence and suffering.” Her cause was opened in Saratov, Russia, in January 2020 under Bishop Clemens Pickel and transferred to Karaganda in August 2021, 50 years after her death in 1971.

The diocesan inquiry concluded earlier this year after collecting testimonies from across Kazakhstan, Russia, and Germany. 

Many witnesses were already advanced in age, making the gathering of reliable evidence a race against time. Even so, about 25 depositions were recorded — including those of Werth and several religious and laypeople who had known Detzel personally. 

Dell’Oro said the research team even gained access to the presidential archive in Almaty, where they located and photographed Detzel’s personal case file, confirming the years of imprisonment she endured for her faith.

“Each document felt like a small resurrection of memory,” he said. “It was as if the truth about her life was finally allowed to speak.”

Though no religious communities existed in Kazakhstan at the time, Detzel lived her vocation as a consecrated laywoman. Before her deportation, she is believed to have made private vows, later joining the Franciscan Third Order under Servant of God Bishop Alexander Chira — the underground bishop who also suffered exile in Karaganda. When her remains were exhumed, a ring and wreath were found — signs of a hidden consecration and of a life offered entirely to God as a consecrated virgin.

According to Werth, Detzel led Sunday Liturgies of the Word when priests were absent — proclaiming Scripture, offering brief reflections, and preparing children and adults for the sacraments. When priests could pass through secretly, Dell’Oro noted, they entrusted her with the Eucharist to bring to the faithful who could not be reached openly.

Her home became a refuge for believers — a place of prayer and catechesis. Only as a laywoman could she have entered homes and sustained families in faith when priests could not.

“She didn’t try to replace priests,” Dell’Oro said. “But when they were absent, she did what was needed.”

“Gertrude formed consciences,” Werth added. “She taught us that holiness begins with fidelity in small things — and from that, everything else flows.”

The spiritual fruit of Detzel’s witness continues to grow in the Church — among priests, religious, and laypeople whose vocations were shaped by her example.

On Dec. 22, 1989, the Supreme Court of the Kazakh SSR officially rehabilitated her, acknowledging that she had committed no crime. Not long after, the Soviet system that had tried to silence the faith collapsed, and Kazakhstan declared its sovereignty on Oct. 25, 1990 — a moment now marked each year as Republic Day. This year marks 35 years since that declaration.

Her cause is now in Rome under the postulation of Father Zdzisław Kijas, OFM Conv, who has guided major causes, including those of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and the Ulma family.

Father Vladimír Jukl who was born 100 years ago, was a secretly ordained Catholic priest in communist Czechoslovakia, and endured imprisonment and torture. He was a key figure in the underground Catholic resistance and inspired thousands through faith, courage, and quiet leadership. / Credit: Karol Dubovan

Rome, Italy, Oct 27, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A hundred years ago, Vladimír Jukl was born — a secretly ordained Catholic priest in communist Czechoslovakia who endured imprisonment and torture yet helped bring down the regime. A key figure in the underground Catholic resistance, he inspired thousands through faith, courage, and quiet leadership.

In 2022, a film titled “The Free Men: A Story of Friendship That Changed Slovakia” told his story. Among those who viewed it were then-Prime Minister Eduard Heger and President Zuzana Čaputová. The following year, former dissident František Mikloško published “Vladimír Jukl: In the Front Line of a Great Story.”

Born in Bratislava in 1925, Jukl was accused of “treason” — that is, of forbidden religious activity — during the communist era. He was tortured, imprisoned, and held in solitary confinement.

“The greatest crime of all was Catholic religious activity. Everyone suspected of it was, after some time, placed in maximum isolation called ‘The Vatican’ in various prisons,” wrote fellow dissident Silvester Krčméry in “Truth Against Power.”

“I was sentenced to 25 years in prison [and observed that] many people without faith touched electric wires to be killed by the current or found another way to disappear from life. I believed the Lord would help me and prayed,” Jukl recalled.

After his release, he continued his mission — this time underground.

The ‘general’ of the secret Church

Bishop Ján Korec, a Jesuit who was secretly ordained a bishop and was later named a cardinal, approved a plan to build a network of small prayer communities at every university faculty and even in individual classes in Bratislava, now Slovakia’s capital. Jukl and Krčméry oversaw the network.

The two regularly met with coordinators to foster spiritual formation and organize activities such as retreats and excursions outside the city — nicknamed “feasts.” Their leadership earned them the nickname “Generals of the Secret Church.”

These communities nurtured a generation of Catholics whose mature faith became a quiet force for cultural and spiritual renewal under the communist regime.

Bestselling author Rod Dreher later highlighted Jukl and Krčméry in “Live Not by Lies,” his book about Christian resistance under totalitarianism. Citing accounts from other dissidents, Dreher wrote that the pair were “like a magnet for the young idealists ready to absorb whatever they offered.”

Their clandestine activities required great caution. To protect one another, participants would never arrive or leave meetings all at once, and many knew only each other’s first names.

A mathematician by training, Jukl also wrote for samizdat publications and served as secretary of the Union of Slovak Mathematicians and Physicists. Korec later secretly ordained Jukl a priest — expanding his means of spiritual formation and ministry.

Contact with Karol Wojtyła

During a mountain trip near the Polish border, Jukl and Krčméry met a young priest named Karol Wojtyła. When he later became archbishop of Kraków, they visited him in Poland as travel restrictions eased.

After Wojtyła’s election as Pope John Paul II in 1978, Jukl reportedly told friends: “You cannot imagine what this will mean for us.” 

Many later noted that the Polish pope’s moral and spiritual influence profoundly encouraged those resisting communism throughout Central and Eastern Europe.

Through Wojtyła’s close friend Wanda Półtawska, the pope remained informed about the Church’s situation in communist Czechoslovakia. After the fall of the regime, he invited Jukl and his collaborators to the Vatican.

The ‘Candle Manifestation’

Jukl also co-organized the famous “Candle Manifestation,” a 1988 public prayer for religious freedom held in Bratislava’s Hviezdoslav Square.

On that rainy evening, thousands gathered with candles under umbrellas only to be dispersed by water cannons and police batons as loudspeakers ordered them to leave. The event became a symbol of nonviolent resistance that foreshadowed the 1989 Velvet Revolution.

“Our goal is not only the good of the Church but also of the whole of society. Christianity is misunderstood by those who see it as something passive, an escape from the world. The opposite is true. Christianity encourages action — lively participation in everything that creates true values,” Jukl said, as quoted in Mikloško’s book.

After the fall of communism, Jukl continued to lead prayer groups in democratic Slovakia until his death in 2012.