Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

Blessed Carmelo De Palma. / Credit: Dicastery for the Causes of Saints

ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 18, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Father Carmelo De Palma, a priest known as the “hero of the confessional,” was beatified Nov. 15 in Bari, Italy.

Pope Leo XIV recognized the new blessed during the Nov. 16 Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, saying De Palma “was a diocesan priest who died in 1961 after a life generously spent in the ministry of confession and spiritual accompaniment.” 

“May his witness inspire priests to give themselves unreservedly to the service of God’s holy people,” he added.

The beatification Mass in Italy was celebrated by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. In his homily in the Bari cathedral, the prelate emphasized that “spirituality, when authentic, is always combined with charity toward one’s neighbor,” Vatican News reported.

“That our blessed lived out this sacramental fraternity is demonstrated both by the numerous testimonies given by priests during the process for his beatification and canonization, and by the subsequent dedication shown by the diocesan clergy in promoting and supporting this cause,” the cardinal said.

He also noted that many faithful found in De Palma “a spiritual guide to progress in their personal response to that ‘vocation which unites us all as baptized, living members of the one people of God: that is, the vocation to holiness.’”

De Palma, Semeraro added, was “for countless faithful a minister of reconciliation and forgiveness” and “a clear and balanced guide” for those who asked for his help “in discerning God’s will for their own lives.”

Who was Father Carmelo De Palma?

De Palma was a diocesan priest who dedicated his life to the ministry of confessor and spiritual direction of the faithful, priests, seminarians, and especially the Benedictine nuns of St. Scholastica in Bari, Italy.

He was born on Jan. 27, 1876, in Bari. After being orphaned, he entered the seminary in his hometown at the age of 10. He was ordained a priest in Naples in 1898.

On June 17, 1900, he was appointed chaplain of St. Nicholas Basilica in Bari, where he served by celebrating Mass, hearing confessions, and encouraging various pastoral initiatives.

Later, the basilica was entrusted to the Dominican Fathers by order of the Holy See, and De Palma was appointed spiritual director of the Benedictine nuns of St. Scholastica in Bari as well as the Oblates of St. Benedict. 

Over the years, his health deteriorated severely due to chronic colitis, arteriosclerosis of the heart, and progressive vision loss. In February 1961, he celebrated Mass publicly for the last time, and because of his illness, he continued to celebrate the Eucharist in his room, where he also continued to hear confessions.

He died in Bari on Aug. 24, 1961, of heart failure. The miracle that led to his beatification was the inexplicable healing of a Benedictine nun who had a severe spinal cord injury that prevented her from walking.

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

Children play as procession participants wait to enter the Shrine of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne for adoration. / Credit: Jonah McKeown/CNA

CNA Staff, Nov 18, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Nov. 18 the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, a French religious sister who came to the United States as a missionary in the 1800s. 

Rose was born on Aug. 29, 1769, in Grenoble, France. On the day of her baptism, she received the names Philip, honoring the apostle, and Rose, honoring St. Rose of Lima. She was educated at the Convent of the Visitation of Ste. Marie d’en Haut and became drawn to contemplative life. At the age of 18, she became a novice at the convent. 

During the revolution in France, Rose’s community was dispersed and she ended up returning to her family home. After the Concordat of 1801, she tried to rebuild her community’s monastery but was unable to do so. 

In 1804, Rose heard of a new congregation — the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She became a novice in the society that same year. 

Despite her great desire for contemplative life, Rose also felt a calling for missionary work. 

In a letter she wrote to Mother Madeleine Sophie Barat, the foundress of the society, Rose described an experience she had during adoration: “I spent the entire night in the New World ... carrying the Blessed Sacrament to all parts of the land ... I had all my sacrifices to offer: a mother, sisters, family, my mountain! When you say to me ‘now I send you,’ I will respond quickly, ‘I go.’”

In 1818, Rose was finally sent to do missionary work. Bishop Louis William Valentine DuBourg, the St. Louis area’s first bishop, was looking for a congregation of educators to help him evangelize the children of the diocese. At St. Charles, near St. Louis, Rose founded the first house of the society outside of France.

That same year, Rose and four other sisters opened the first free school for Native American children in the United States. By 1828 Rose had founded six schools.

The saint once said: “You may dazzle the mind with a thousand brilliant discoveries of natural science; you may open new worlds of knowledge which were never dreamed of before; yet, if you have not developed in the soul of the pupil strong habits of virtue, which will sustain her in the struggle of life, you have not educated her.”

Rose always carried a desire to serve Native Americans. In 1841, at the age of 71, she established a school for Potawatomi girls in Sugar Creek, Kansas. She spent a year with the Potawatomi, spending much of her time in prayer because she was unable to help with much of the physical work. They gave her the name “Quah-kah-ka-num-ad,” which means “woman who is always praying.”

In 1842, Rose returned to St. Charles and died there on Nov. 18, 1852, at the age of 83. She was declared a saint by Pope John Paul II on July 3, 1988, and is buried at the Shrine of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne in St. Charles, Missouri.

This story was first published on Nov. 18, 2024, and has been updated.

Jessica Williams and her 3-year-old daughter were helped by First Choice Pregnancy Services in Las Vegas. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America

CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2025 / 16:11 pm (CNA).

When Jessica Williams became pregnant with another man’s child while she and her husband were separated, her husband pressured her to abort the child.

As soon as she took the first abortion pill, mifepristone, she regretted it. 

“As a nurse, the reality of what I had done had hit me hard,” said Williams, who was nine weeks pregnant at the time. “Here I was working to save lives and about to take one of my own child’s lives.” 

But as a nurse, Williams knew that in spite of the pill cutting off the progesterone supply to her child, the baby might still be alive. She hadn’t yet taken the second pill, misoprostol, which would expel the child from her body.  

When she found a pregnancy center, First Choice Pregnancy Services in Las Vegas, staff immediately brought her in for an ultrasound.

“They provided a free ultrasound, and that moment changed everything,” she said. 

Her baby was still alive.

First Choice helped her through the abortion pill reversal process, a practice to reverse the effects of mifepristone soon after the woman takes the first abortion pill. 

Now, her daughter is a “healthy” and “thriving” 3-year-old, Williams said when she shared her story at a Nov. 17 online press conference.

Williams is one of many women who have received help from pregnancy resource centers. 

Pregnancy centers across the U.S. “provided over $452 million in total medical care, support and education services, and material goods in 2024,” according to a Nov. 17 report by the Charlotte Lozier Institute. 

Pregnancy centers saw a total of 1 million new patients last year, “which is the equivalent of each center serving a new client every day in 2024,” Karen Czarnecki, the head of Charlotte Lozier Institute, said during the press conference. 

During the press conference, Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called pregnancy centers the “beating heart” of pro-life movement.  

Pregnancy centers, Dannenfelser said, “are going to the roots of the problem” by providing support for mothers across the board, whether they are struggling with addiction, domestic abuse, homelessness, completing school, or any other challenge. 

Report debunks false claims about pregnancy centers 

Dannenfelser noted there are some claims “often unchecked in the media” that call pregnancy centers “fake clinics” or say they “don’t have licensed medical staff.”

“This is flat-out false,” Dannenfelser said. “Eight in 10 centers are providing free or low-cost medical services, staffed by over 10,000 medical professionals.” 

More than 80% of these centers provide ultrasound services, according to the report. Many of the centers also provide STD and STI testing and treatment, as well as abortion pill reversal, like in Williams’ experience. 

The report also found a 98% satisfaction rate among their clients — something Williams attested to.

“They greeted me gently and were nonjudgmental,” Williams said of the staff and volunteers at the pregnancy clinic she went to. “They provided a safe, calm space for me, emotionally, spiritually.”

“They gave me information and education without pushing me in any direction,” she continued. “They simply supported me in whatever path I chose.”

More than three years later, Williams still keeps up with the women at the clinic.

“I’m meeting with these ladies every month still,” Williams said. “They’re just a phone call, a text away, anything I need. I mean, we’re just almost becoming a family now.” 

Pregnancy centers also provide material, educational, and emotional support. For instance, 92% of centers offer material items to women in need. On average, each pregnancy center distributed six-packs of diapers and five baby outfits every day, according to the report. 

First Choice “provided diapers, material support, emotional and spiritual support groups, parenting resources, community connections, and just so much practical help in general,” Williams said. “It was a level of compassion that carried me through my entire pregnancy.” 

Offering material support is a growing effort in the pro-life movement. At pregnancy centers, material support has grown by more than 300% from 2019 to 2024.

Many pregnancy centers also offer a variety of other resources, including childbirth classes, breastfeeding consultations, and outreach to victims of human trafficking. 

“Even right now, they’re doing a monthly get-together — we get to network with other mamas,” Williams said. “We’re [able] to access any resources.”  

The majority of pregnancy centers also help support women who are recovering from abortions.

Williams said the women at the clinic “understood the pressure and fear” she was under to abort. Even after the reversal, her husband drove her to an abortion clinic when she was 16 weeks pregnant “to finish the job,” she said. 

“The clinic was on the same exact street [where] I saved my baby,” she said. “I couldn’t do it and demanded he take me home. I now know that the strategic location has also saved many other babies.” 

“They created a safe place for me to heal and feel supported,” she said of the clinic.

Professor Robert P. George speaks at Heritage Foundation event commemorating the 100th anniversary of Pierce v. Society of Sisters on May 30, 2025. / Credit: Ronald Walters

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 17, 2025 / 15:41 pm (CNA).

Robert P. George, a Catholic academic focused on philosophy and law, resigned from his board position at the conservative Heritage Foundation on Nov. 17 after the think tank’s leader Kevin Roberts posted a video defending Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes.

In the interview, Carlson and Fuentes bonded over criticism of Israel, and Carlson pushed back on Fuentes for tying his criticisms of Israel to Jewish identity and blaming “organized Jewry” for the American support of Israel. Jewish organizations and some conservative and other political commentators argued that Carlson platformed Fuentes’ views and kept a friendly tone without adequately pushing back against antisemitic claims. Carlson allowed Fuentes to speak uninterrupted and challenged general blame levied against Jewish people but did not address each specific claim Fuentes made.

Roberts, who has since apologized, said in his initial video that he abhors “things that Nick Fuentes says” but urged debate instead of “canceling him.” He said Heritage would stay friends with Carlson and criticized the “venomous coalition” attacking Carlson.

In the video, Roberts said: “Christians can critique the state of Israel without being antisemitic.” Roberts issued an apology for using the term “venomous coalition” amid accusations that it was an antisemitic trope and said Heritage would continue to fight antisemitism. 

George said in a Facebook post that he would resign from the board because Roberts did not fully retract his initial video when he issued an apology.  

“Kevin is a good man,” George said. “He made what he acknowledged was a serious mistake. Being human myself, I have plenty of experience in making mistakes. What divided us was a difference of opinion about what was required to rectify the mistake.”

George said he was saddened to leave Heritage and prays the think tank “will be guided by the conviction that each and every member of the human family, irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion, or anything else, as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, is ‘created equal’ and ‘endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.’”

“The anchor for the Heritage Foundation, and for our nation, and for every patriotic American is that creed,” he said. “It must always be that creed. If we hold fast to it even when expediency counsels compromising it, we cannot go wrong. If we abandon it, we sign the death certificate of republican government and ordered liberty.”

A spokesperson for Heritage said in a statement to CNA that George is “a good man,” thanked him for his time at Heritage, and looks forward to “opportunities to work together in the future.”

“Under the leadership of Dr. Roberts, Heritage remains resolute in building an America where freedom, opportunity, prosperity, and civil society flourish,” the statement read. “We are strong, growing, and more determined than ever to fight for our republic.”

Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the conservative Family Institute of Connecticut, said in response to George on Facebook that he disagrees with George’s decision to resign “when Heritage is trying to make amends and needs support of the adults in the room, lest it be tempted by the ancient evil about whose promotion Kevin Roberts was initially too sanguine.”

Wolfgang said the “continuing beatdown” on Roberts appears to be a proxy for the pre-Trump Republicans seeking to “take back the reins of the party from the Trumpers.” Though he told George, “I’m not saying that’s you,” he added that the neoconservative wing of the Republican Party and the “MAGA” wing should be unified in opposition to antisemitism.

The Oct. 27 interview of Fuentes by Carlson has more than 6.2 million views on YouTube. In the interview, Fuentes discussed Republican efforts to “cancel” him starting when he was 18 years old. Those efforts often focused on his criticism of Israel and derogatory comments toward Jewish people and other ethnic minorities.

Fuentes and Carlson agreed in criticism of Israeli military action in Gaza, opposition to American financial and logistic support to Israel, and objections to politicians receiving political donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Carlson objected when Fuentes said neoconservatism and advocacy for Israel was rooted in Jewish identity and blamed “organized Jewry” for wars. Carlson retorted that many supporters of Israel are Christian Zionists, like Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee, and many Jewish Americans, such as Dave Smith, are critical of Israel.

In the interview, Carlson said collectively blaming Jewish people is “against my Christian faith” and “I just don’t believe that and I never will.”

The interview has fractured American conservatives. Some denounced Carlson for his friendly tone throughout the interview. Others noted his pushback against some of Fuentes’ views and the political relevance of Fuentes, who has a large fanbase among young conservative men.

Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. / Credit: Nheyob, Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0

CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2025 / 14:05 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Detroit has announced a restructuring process that will lead to church closures and parish mergers as a result of declining church attendance, its archbishop said.

Archbishop Edward Weisenburger announced in a letter over the weekend that due to a shrinking Catholic population in the archdiocese, a two-year restructuring process will see some parishes close while others will be collected into groupings called “pastorates,” led by one pastor and his team.

He said the “struggle to care for buildings and parish structures where there are very few people” is preventing the Church there to focus on “areas where the Church is growing.” 

Weisenburger said that currently there are 900,000 Catholics in the archdiocese, and fewer than half of those attend Mass regularly. Many parish buildings were constructed at a time when there were 1.5 million Catholics in the archdiocese.

Because of this, the archbishop said there are too many buildings to maintain and it has been “stretched too thinly to serve as well as we want.”

According to the archdiocese, there has been a “dramatic decline in baptisms, first Communions and confirmations, and a steady decline in marriages” since 2000. 

In 2010, 252 priests served the archdiocese. There are 224 today, and that number is expected to shrink by 40% in the next decade. In addition, the majority of active priests are over the age of 50. 

Three-quarters of parishes are also projected to shrink in the next five years, and currently 67% of parishes have fewer than 600 weekly Mass attendees. 

The archbishop encouraged his flock not to give in to “anxiety or despair” but said he believes “the situation we are facing is one that holds real and blessed opportunities. I believe with all my heart that God is inviting us to reimagine parish life, priestly ministry, and our mission.”

He said the restructuring will be guided by three pillars: “vibrant parishes,” “flourishing priests,” and “mission ready.”

The timeline for the restructuring began in March, when Weisenburger — who had just been installed as the sixth archbishop of Detroit — held 17 listening sessions across the archdiocese over several months. After data from the sessions was analyzed and he consulted with priests and other parish leaders, Weisenburger announced the restructuring on Nov. 16. Priests will meet in January 2026 to develop the pastorate models, and additional listening sessions in parishes will then take place.

The plan will be implemented beginning July 2027 through July of the following year.

In his letter, the archbishop told Detroit Catholics they can follow each step in the restructuring process in the Detroit Catholic, the archdiocese’s free online news source.

The archdiocese said 30 other dioceses across the United States are currently restructuring due to declines in numbers and participation. This month, the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, also announced a restructuring plan.

Dubuque Archbishop Thomas Zinkula said the restructuring was necessary due to “dramatic shifts in population, culture, and finances within our archdiocese. We are using only 37% of our church capacities each weekend. Since 2006, Mass attendance is down 46% throughout the archdiocese.”

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa. / Credit: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 17, 2025 / 13:03 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Detroit plans to welcome Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa for a pastoral visit in December to help fundraise for efforts in the Holy Land.

“It is a blessing for the faithful of Detroit to welcome Cardinal Pizzaballa, whose courageous witness in the Holy Land strengthens the entire Church,” said Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit in an announcement.

Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, is set to visit Detroit Dec. 4–7. He will celebrate Mass and take part in events to fundraise for “the dire situation and enduring hopes of the Church in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem,” the archdiocese reported.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has roots dating back to 1099 but was reestablished in 1847 by Pope Pius IX. It encompasses Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus. 

Members of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem work to preserve the holy sites visited by Jesus and the saints of the early Church. 

“The Christian presence in the very places Jesus lived and taught is under threat,” the Detroit Archdiocese said. Christians make up a small minority of the population and are facing personal and financial struggles, including employment discrimination and social pressures.

Despite the persecution, Christians in the Holy Land “heroically maintain and protect the holy sites sacred to us all,” the archdiocese’s statement said.

Fundraising efforts

Pizzaballa’s visit is scheduled to begin with “An Evening of Hope” on Dec. 4. The fundraiser dinner will be hosted by the Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle, an Eastern-rite diocese based in Southfield, Michigan.

On Dec. 5, Pizzaballa is set to be the keynote speaker at the “United in Faith: Bridging Hearts from the Motor City to the Holy Land” fundraiser in Plymouth, hosted by the Archdiocese of Detroit. Pizzaballa will share firsthand insights into the situation of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the next steps for the Church.

Christians in the Holy Land are counting on the faithful’s “solidarity to keep their ancient faith alive in its homeland,” the archdiocese reported. “Through the generosity of the faithful, we will help sustain their critical mission through pastoral care, education, and humanitarian outreach.”

On Dec. 7, Pizzaballa is set to end his trip by celebrating Mass at the National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica in Royal Oak.

Pizzaballa’s “visit reminds us that the Church is one body, united across every border and culture,” Weisenburger said. “It is also an occasion to renew our solidarity with the Christian community of the Holy Land and to bring greater attention to the humanitarian challenges they continue to face.”

Three women share their stories of experiences with abortion at the pro-life event at the European Parliament in Brussels, Oct. 15, 2025. / Credit: European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ)

EWTN News, Nov 17, 2025 / 10:06 am (CNA).

On Nov. 5, the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality voted 26-12 to back the pro-abortion initiative “My Voice, My Choice” — just weeks after pro-life advocates held the largest gathering in the Parliament in more than a decade to challenge the initiative’s push for EU-funded cross-border abortion access.

The Oct. 15 conference, hosted by the European Centre for Law and Justice and co-organized with the One of Us federation, drew 300 participants including eight members of the European Parliament, former EU Commissioner for Health Tonio Borg, and former Slovenian Prime Minister Alojz Peterle.

Six women shared testimonies about their personal experiences with abortion — stories of regret, trauma, and long-term emotional consequences they say are often overlooked in policymaking.

Funding for My Voice, My Choice from pro-abortion foundations

While the committee’s draft resolution on My Voice, My Choice carries no binding legal effect, it nonetheless sets a symbolic precedent that has drawn sharp criticism from pro-life organizations across Europe. A European Citizens Initiative (ECI) allows EU citizens to propose legislation directly to the European Commission if they gather at least 1 million verified signatures from citizens across a minimum of seven member states.

My Voice, My Choice, supported heavily in Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, and Italy, collected 1,124,513 signatures and raised 923,028 euros from private donors and pro-abortion foundations.

Along with backing the draft resolution, the committee also approved an oral question to the European Commission — a formal parliamentary procedure used to demand an on-the-record explanation. In this case, it asks the commission how it intends to respond to My Voice, My Choice, ensuring the issue moves beyond the committee level and into a public parliamentary debate.

Pro-life organizations draw comparisons with an earlier ECI, One of Us, a pro-life campaign that in 2014 secured even greater public backing, collecting 1,721,626 signatures despite operating on a far smaller budget of 159,219 euros and relying largely on volunteer mobilization. 

Yet, despite surpassing the threshold by a wide margin, the European Commission declined to act on its proposals. The outcome remains a point of contention within pro-life circles, who argue it highlights an institutional double standard and political bias in how such initiatives are ultimately treated.

EU funding for abortions outside of home countries?

The Oct. 15 pro-life event focused on the social and emotional context surrounding abortion decisions — from family pressure and economic hardship to instances where abortion followed sexual violence.

According to organizers, the six women who shared their testimonies also contacted all 40 full members of the committee, offering to share their experiences individually. 

Most members did not agree to meet them.

For Nicolas Bauer of the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), the lack of engagement reinforces a broader concern. He questioned whether some members of the European Parliament are guided more by ideology than by listening to the diversity of women’s experiences.

The committee’s endorsement of My Voice, My Choice, he explained, reflects a belief among left-leaning groups that abortion is “inherently a right and a social good,” leaving little space for accounts of suffering, regret, or moral conflict.

Bauer explained that the proposal envisions a system in which a woman unable to obtain an abortion in her home country could “receive EU funding to have one in a country where it is available.” 

As an example, he noted that a French woman who is 22 weeks pregnant — beyond France’s legal limit — “could travel to the Netherlands for an abortion, financed by the EU.” 

Such a scheme would, in practice, “harmonize abortion law across Europe by aligning it with the most permissive countries,” regardless of national legislation or moral consensus. He attributed the campaign’s public traction not to broad ideological agreement but to “slick marketing backed by substantial financial resources.”

He further claimed that the European Commission “even helped the organizers of My Voice, My Choice to draft their petition in a way that would maximize its chances of being declared admissible,” contrasting this with the experience of One of Us, which, he noted, “gathered more signatures but did not benefit from the same institutional support.”

Examining top-down strategies

Matthieu Bruynseels, advocacy director for EU affairs at the Federation of Catholic Family Associations, stressed the importance of subsidiarity — a principle rooted in both EU treaties and Catholic social doctrine. He noted that issues such as abortion, gestational surrogacy, and euthanasia lie outside the EU’s direct competencies, yet they continue to be debated at the European level for political reasons. In the wake of My Voice, My Choice, Bruynseels said the federation is concerned about the European Parliament’s growing efforts to incorporate abortion rights into its policies.

The ECLJ plans to return to these themes at its upcoming conference on Nov. 26. The event will examine what it describes as increasingly top-down strategies within the My Voice, My Choice campaign as well as recent trends in ECI funding. It will also highlight Article 33 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which calls on the union to support, not redefine, family and motherhood. As with the October gathering, the November conference will again feature women sharing firsthand accounts of their experiences with abortion.

As for My Voice, My Choice, the initiative will enter its formal institutional phase. A public hearing is scheduled for Dec. 2 in the European Parliament, during which the organizers will present their case to members of the European Parliament, the commission, and other stakeholders. After this hearing, the European Commission will be required to issue an official response outlining whether it intends to propose legislative action, pursue alternative measures, or decline to proceed and explain its reasoning publicly.

For advocates like Bauer, Bruynseels, and many within Europe’s pro-life movement, these unfolding developments highlight a defining question at the heart of EU politics today: Will abortion policy gradually align across the union, or will it continue to reflect the diverse ethical, legal, and cultural traditions of individual countries?

A roadside wooden crucifix in Bavaria. / Credit: AC Wimmer/EWTN News

EWTN News, Nov 17, 2025 / 09:06 am (CNA).

Church arson attacks across Europe nearly doubled in 2024, part of a broader surge in anti-Christian hate crimes that included 274 personal assaults against Christians and the killing of a 76-year-old Spanish monk, according to a new report released Monday by the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe).

The report documented 2,211 anti-Christian hate crimes across Europe in 2024, with 94 arson attacks on churches — nearly double the number recorded in 2023.

An official launch of the report will take place Tuesday, Nov. 18, at the European Parliament Intergroup on Freedom of Religion, Belief, and Conscience. OIDAC Europe compiled the report using official police figures, OSCE/ODIHR statistics, and its own case documentation.

Official numbers do not show the full scale

The spike in arson attacks is particularly prominent: A total of 94 arson incidents targeted churches and other Christian sites — one-third of which occurred in Germany.

France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and Austria recorded the highest number of anti-Christian incidents overall. While most attacks were directed at places of worship, OIDAC Europe recorded 274 personal attacks against Christians in 2024, including assaults and threats.

Among the report’s findings are several severe cases, including the killing of a 76-year-old monk in Spain in November 2024 and the near-destruction of a historic church in Saint-Omer, France, by fire in September 2024.

Executive Director Anja Tang emphasized that the figures represent “very concrete acts of church vandalism, arson, and physical assaults that deeply affect local communities,” warning that official statistics still underestimate the scale of the problem.

New surveys from Poland and Spain reveal that nearly half of priests have encountered aggression. However, the vast majority never report these incidents to the police.

“If half of Catholic clergy experience aggression in a Catholic-majority country, hostility towards Christians can no longer be treated as a marginal issue,” Tang said.

Christians under social pressure across Europe

Beyond physical attacks, the report documents the growing legal and social pressure on Christians across Europe between 2024 and 2025.

Examples include the prosecution of individuals for silently praying in so-called “buffer zones” near abortion facilities in the United Kingdom; the ongoing “hate speech” proceedings against Finnish Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen for quoting the Bible; and the high-profile employment case of United Kingdom teacher Kristie Higgs. The Court of Appeal in February 2025 ultimately recognized Higgs’ Christian views as legally protected beliefs.

“These patterns highlight the urgent need to strengthen the protection of freedom of religion or belief in Europe — including the right to express and discuss faith-based convictions in the public sphere without fear of reprisal or censorship,” Tang said.

In its recommendations, OIDAC Europe calls for stronger, more coordinated European Union action. This includes appointing a European Union coordinator to combat anti-Christian hatred, similar to existing mandates on antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred.

The organization also urges governments to implement the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) new guide, Understanding Anti-Christian Hate Crimes and Addressing the Security Needs of Christian Communities, and to make systematic and comparable data collection on hate crimes against Christians a key priority.

Organizers of Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming digital dialogue with young people Nov. 21 at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis speak to the media at the site of the United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 12, 2025. Left to right: Cardinal Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States; Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News; Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez, Archdiocese of Philadelphia; Christina Lamas, executive director of National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry; and Archbishop Charles Thompson, Archdiocese of Indianapolis. / Credit: Shannon Mullen/National Catholic Register

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 17, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Bishops discussed young Catholics’ place in the Church ahead of the National Catholic Youth Conference.

At the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, bishops spoke about the young generation as many prepare to attend NCYC. The conference will take place Nov. 20–22 in Indianapolis for prayer, community, evangelization, and service among Catholic teenagers.

During NCYC, Pope Leo XIV will hold a digital dialogue with teens from across the nation. “When the pope speaks, he speaks to the world, and this will be a wonderful, wonderful moment. This encounter will engage young people in real time,” said Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia. 

At a Nov. 12 press conference at the USCCB fall plenary, Pérez said “there is a deep significance to this encounter.” He added: “It reflects the Holy Father’s desire to connect with young people, with our youth, whom his predecessor … Pope Francis, called ‘the now of God.’”

Pérez said during his time as a priest and bishop, he has noticed teenagers “want a place in the Church.” He said: “They want to be seen, heard, and valued, which is so beautiful ... They want to be loved by the Church.”

“Even in today’s interconnected world, the Church can seem far away from young people. The Holy Father’s choice to encounter the American youth ... is an expression of his closeness to the youth of the world.”

“This moment will mark a powerful opportunity for young people to witness the beauty of the universal Church with our Holy Father and to express their concerns, voices, experience, [and] what’s in their hearts,” Pérez said.

Bishop Joseph Espaillat, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of New York, has attended NCYC more than a dozen times. He told CNA “the energy and the vibrancy of the young people” is why he returns each year.

“It’s not just the local parish or the local diocese, but it’s the national Church and there’s something powerful when we come together,” Espaillat said.

​This year’s event is “the first time ever the Holy Father has a live online interview like this,” at NCYC, Espaillat said. “What I love about it is that the Church in the United States is leading right now. The young people being the focus with our Holy Father is going to be great, and it’s going to produce a lot of positive energy in our Church.”

Espaillat encouraged attendees “to be open and allow yourself to be surprised by the Holy Spirit.” He added: “Don’t go in with a preconceived notion. It is a great event in which there are many, many fruits. I’ve seen young people just come to life at the event.”

Youth draw closer to the Church

As thousands of teenagers plan to gather at the national conference, U.S. bishops further explained why so many young Catholics are looking to the Church. A number of bishops highlighted the Catholic presence on social media is helping to draw them in.

Bishop William Byrne of Springfield, Massachusetts, told CNA the exponential growth of young Catholics coming to the Church is “amazing and exciting.” Byrne, who served as chair for the USCCB’s committee on communications, detailed how much its online presence has grown its outreach to the young generation and wider population. 

“Beginning with the illness of our beloved Pope Francis, through the funeral, and then the transition to Pope Leo, we’ve actually had a 226% growth in our social media on the four platforms we use — TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube,” he said.

“The amazing thing is, it’s still growing. It means that people are seeing it, sharing it,” Byrne said. He specifically noted it’s the “young people” spreading the message online. 

“So we see that we are reaching people,” Byrne said. “But our goal is not to get people locked on their phones. Our goal is to get people locked on Jesus Christ and have the impression be Jesus Christ and his bride, the Church.”

“This is an exciting time. It’s not without its challenges, but it’s also a wonderful opportunity,” Byrne said. “We’re reaching young people who are curious and hungry. It’s so exciting to see the Church continue to speak to the world, because the Church has never lost her relevance.”

The start of the Catholic online presence followed the movement of the new atheists, Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said. He told CNA the movement was made up of “people who were really shaping the culture, saying: ‘There’s no purpose of life. We come from nowhere. We go nowhere. There’s no objective moral value.’”

“A lot of people, myself included, began to get on social media with a religious voice,” Barron said. “People who had not heard a religious voice or who were disaffiliated … could find people like me and many others who were actually talking about God and about religion.”

“But I think as a whole generation came of age, they realized what a desperately sad and empty message that is,” Barron said. “There’s this hunger in the heart for God, and so that just reasserts itself. I think a lot of younger people who were raised on this very vapid philosophy began to look to religion.”

As more young Catholics get involved in youth formation whether in their parishes or at larger gatherings like NCYC, Barron said he encourages them to use the opportunities to “build community and build a sense of family with other believers.”

Barron, who is the founder of the Catholic media organization Word on Fire, has gained nearly 3 million YouTube subscribers and millions of other followers across social media platforms. But, he said, “one drawback of social media is that it’s a little private world. It can be a lot of people accessing it, but privately.”

“Maybe through social media an individual finds a path to religion, but then to look around a room and see thousands of other people that are on a similar path — that’s a great thing,” Barron said.

null / Credit: Daniel Jedzura/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Slightly over 10 years after it redefined marriage to include same-sex couples, the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 10 declined to revisit that controversial decision, upholding at least for now its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that made “gay marriage” the law of the land.

A decade after that ruling, nearly a million same-sex couples in the U.S. are participating in what the law now defines as marriage. Yet the Catholic Church has continued to affirm the definition of marriage as being exclusively a union between a man and a woman. 

That has been the prevailing definition of marriage around the world for at least about 5,000 years of human history, though many societies have allowed polygamy, or multiple spouses, in various forms. The same-sex variant of marriage, meanwhile, only became accepted in recent decades. 

The Church has held since its beginning that marriage is strictly between one man and one woman. The Catechism of the Catholic Church directs that marriage occurs when “a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life.” It is “by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring.”

Church Fathers and theologians from the earliest days of Catholicism have consistently upheld that marriage is meant to be a lifelong, permanent union between one man and one woman, with St. Augustine explicitly naming “offspring” as one of the blessings of marriage, along with “fidelity” and “the sacramental bond.”

Gay marriage a ‘misnomer’ by Church teaching

John Grabowski, a professor of moral theology at The Catholic University of America, told CNA that marriage in the Catholic Church’s teaching is based on “unity, indissolubility, and [is ordered] toward life,” or the begetting of children.

“Those criteria can only be met in a union between a man and a woman,” he said. “They cannot be met in a union between two men and two women. ‘Gay marriage’ is thus a misnomer in the Church’s understanding.”

The Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage, Grabowski argued, was an act of “judicial fiat” rather than a recognition of what marriage actually is. He said the high court was functioning more as a “cultural barometer” reflecting an erroneous shift in perception on what marriage is.

“It would be similar to if the court passed a rule saying we could call a square a circle,” he said. “It’s just not based on the reality of the natural world.”

The Obergefell ruling came after years of LGBT activist efforts to redefine marriage both within individual states and at the federal level. Advocates had argued that there was no meaningful reason to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples and that to do so constituted discrimination. 

Many critics have claimed that the Church’s broader teaching on marriage actually left the door open for same-sex couples to marry — for instance, they argued, by allowing opposite-sex couples to marry even if one or both of the spouses are infertile, the Church implicitly divorces biological childbearing from marriage itself. 

Grabowski acknowledged that the Church does allow infertile couples to get married (and to stay married if infertility occurs at a later date). But he pointed out that the Church does in fact prohibit marriage for those who are impotent, or constitutionally incapable of intercourse. 

The key point for the Church, he said, is what St. John Paul II called the “spousal meaning of the body.” The late pope argued that men and women “exist in the relationship of the reciprocal gift of self,” ordered to the communion of “one flesh” of which the Bible speaks in Genesis. 

The Church’s teaching, Grabowski said, “is based on the natural law. It tells us that the way God designed us is for the good of our flourishing, both as individuals and as the good of society.”

Though marriage advocates have continued to criticize the Supreme Court’s decision over the past decade, others have at times suggested a pivot away from directly challenging it at the legal level. 

In 2017, for instance, Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron affirmed his opposition to gay marriage but questioned “the prudence and wisdom” of attempting to legislatively outlaw it at that time. The bishop suggested instead that “personal witness and education” were better tools for the current political climate.

Grabowski acknowledged that one “could say, realistically, the ship has sailed and the political question is dead.”

“But that’s a political judgment,” he said. Catholics should not lose sight of the goal to reestablish correct laws on marriage, he argued.

“In terms of something to hope for, pray for, and to the degree that we’re able to, work for it — that’s something Catholics should aspire to.”