Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

French Police officers seal off the entrance to the Louvre Museum after a jewelry heist on Oct. 19, 2025, in Paris. / Credit: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images

Paris, France, Oct 21, 2025 / 13:07 pm (CNA).

The Louvre Museum in Paris became the scene of a meticulously planned daylight heist on Sunday morning, Oct. 19. Four helmeted men broke into the Galerie d’Apollon — home to France’s Crown Jewels — and stole eight pieces of jewelry described by Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez as being of “inestimable heritage value.”

Among the stolen items was Empress Eugénie’s “reliquary” brooch, which reminded the world of the fervent Catholic faith of Napoleon III’s wife, now better known as a pioneer of modern luxury.  

The robbers, who arrived in a truck on Quai François Mitterrand — the riverside avenue that runs along the Seine just below the Louvre’s main facade in central Paris — used a furniture lift to reach a first-floor window, broke into the gallery, and escaped on scooters within minutes. One jewel — Empress Eugénie’s crown — was later found broken near the museum, while the thieves remain at large.

Crafted in 1855 by court jeweler Paul Alfred Bapst, the brooch combined imperial splendor with intimate symbolism.

Experts at the Louvre noted that the term “reliquary,” associated with the brooch since the sale of the Crown Diamonds in 1887 and engraved on its fastening pin, has long intrigued historians. The jewel contains no visible chamber to hold a relic.

However, because it can be dismantled, curators suggest it may have been designed to allow the insertion of an intermediate element that could later contain one. On the back of its case lies a small compartment that may have served this purpose — a detail consistent with Empress Eugénie’s noted personal devotion.

The jewelry piece was set with 94 diamonds, including three of extraordinary provenance. Two — known as Mazarin 17th and 18th — were part of the legendary set of 18 gems bequeathed to Louis XIV by Cardinal Jules Mazarin in 1661, while the central stone — once a button on the Sun King’s doublet and later an earring of Marie-Antoinette — linked three centuries of French history.  

Historian Éric Anceau, an expert of France’s Second Empire, called the theft “a catastrophe.”

“A piece of our heritage forged over three centuries has disappeared,” he wrote.

The heritage association Sites et Monuments echoed this sentiment, describing the brooch as “a brief summary of French history” and warning that its jewels “are likely to be dismantled and recut to facilitate their resale.”

Empress Eugénie’s reputation as a fashionable sovereign has often overshadowed her deep personal piety. Contemporary witnesses describe her as charitable and devout, even excessively so in the eyes of her detractors. She prayed daily, supported religious orders, and personally oversaw imperial donations to hospitals, parishes, and relief funds — efforts sometimes referred to as her “Ministry of Charity.”

Her faith was also recognized by the Church. At the baptism of the imperial prince in Notre Dame de Paris, June 1856, Pope Pius IX sent her a Golden Rose — the highest papal distinction to reward piety or services rendered to the Church.

Two years later, she intervened to reopen the grotto of Lourdes to pilgrims after her son’s healing, as highlighted by Aleteia, which also mentions that during the cholera epidemic of 1865, she visited the sick in person, bringing comfort to the afflicted.

The Fondation Napoléon today preserves some of Empress Eugénie‘s devotional objects, including a rosary gifted by Trappist monks in Algeria in 1865 and a prayer book on which she recorded with a handwritten note the date of Napoleon III’s death in 1873. 

The reliquary brooch embodied the continuity between monarchy and empire, between power and faith. By way of its reused royal diamonds and historicist design of gilded silver and floral motifs, the brooch reflected both France’s artistic genius and Christian heritage. Its disappearance therefore marks the vanishing of a tangible link between France’s temporal grandeur and soul as the eldest daughter of the Church.

French authorities have opened an investigation for “organized theft and criminal conspiracy to commit a crime,” led by the Paris Judicial Police’s AntiCrime Brigade. Sixty investigators are currently assigned to the case.

According to TF1/LCI, a promising lead emerged on Oct.  21: The furniture lift used in the break-in was traced to a carjacking in the nearby town of Louvres, where several men posing as buyers allegedly stole the machine after threatening an employee nine days before the heist.

Investigators later discovered that the lift’s license plate and identifying markings had been altered, adding to the growing body of evidence left behind by the thieves — including two angle grinders, a glove, a blowtorch, a blanket, a walkie-talkie, and a can of gasoline.

Capella di Santa Rosa, St. Rosalia’s Chapel inside of the Palermo Cathedral, Basilica Cattedrale Metropolitana Primaziale della Santa Vergine Maria Assunta in Sicily, Itay, on May 5, 2022. / Credit: Frank Bienewald/LightRocket via Getty Images

Rome, Italy, Oct 21, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The murder of a 21-year-old Italian man after trying to break up a fight has prompted two southern Italian archbishops to sound the alarm against the rise of Mafia-style killings among young people.  

At a prayer service Oct. 18 for Paolo Taormina, who was killed one week ago outside the family-owned bar where he worked, Archbishop Gualtiero Isacchi of Monreale, Italy, told the faithful present that their presence was “a sign of resistance and a desire for change.”

“The violent, typically Mafia-like logic of oppression, which some shamefully and unconsciously praise on social media, aims to erase human conscience and dignity, to extinguish hope, and to condemn the person to the resignation of ‘nothing will ever change,’” Isacchi said, according to SIR, the news agency of the Italian bishops’ conference.

Archbishop Corrado Lorefice of Palermo also attended the prayer service, which was held at St. Philip Neri Church, located in the Zen neighborhood, the same area where Taormina was murdered. 

Invoking the memory of Blessed Pino Puglisi, a parish priest who was killed by the Mafia in 1993, Lorefice urged the people of Monreale and Palermo to “take on the challenge” of protecting youth from the influence of the Mafia and gang-related organizations.

“We must shout to young people that criminal organizations do not want their happiness, and we must remember that the center of the city is wherever the person is,” the archbishop said.  

Taormina’s murder is the latest in a series of gangland-style shootings related to a perceived rise in youth violence and organized crime in Monreale and Palermo.

In April, three young men — Massimo Pirozzo, Salvatore Turdo, and Andrea Miceli — were shot and killed after four men — one of whom was 19 years old — shot at a crowd after an argument broke out. Two others were seriously injured in the shooting, which was dubbed “The Monreale Massacre.” 

Taormina’s alleged killer, 28-year-old Gaetano Maranzano, was the son of one of the area’s known drug kingpins and was caught with other firearms after he was arrested at his home.  

At the prayer service, Isacchi said that some may view their gathering to pray for an end to violence as “useless“ or perhaps look at it “with an air of sufficiency and superiority.” 

Nevertheless, “we choose to listen to the faint inner voice that whispers to us: ‘God is there, lying on the ground next to Paolo, Massimo, Andrea, Salvo, to all our sons and friends, victims of senseless armed violence,’“ he said. “It is a voice that calls us, asking us to do our part to stop the violence and restore dignity to every person and every environment.”

Father Giovanni Giannalia, pastor of St. Philip Neri Parish, told SIR that while many singled out the troubled Zen neighborhood as “trivial” and “violent,” there are still “many people willing to do good, and doing it here is more tiring than elsewhere.”  

“Youth violence is worrying: three deaths in Monreale, one in Palermo. The situation is out of control, it’s an emergency,” Giannalia said, adding that everyone, especially priests, who “encounter evil” must fight against it. 

The warnings from Church leaders highlighted concerns regarding escalating violence among young people, particularly in Sicily, where the local Mafia, known as “Cosa Nostra,“ has taken to recruiting young people. 

According to a February report by the “Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime,” a demographic analysis conducted after raids against the Mafia organization found that of 181 individuals arrested, 40 were under the age of 35 and 10 were under the age of 25.  

Following Taormina’s murder, Isacchi and Lorefice issued a joint statement Oct. 14 saying they had hoped that “The Monreale Massacre” would mark a turning point in the region that would end the wave of youth violence.  

“Today, we renew the same hope. We believe that change is possible,” the bishops wrote. “May Paolo’s life become a sign of the transformation of our cities: a seed of rebirth.”

“Let us entrust ourselves to Our Lady of Sorrows,” the archbishops added. “Only she knows how to enter the pierced heart of a mother who holds her murdered son in her arms, but also into the heart of the mother of a son who is a killer. May the mother of Jesus teach us the way of rebirth, love for the little ones, the poor, the children, and for those who have no voice; the way of nonviolence and peace.” 

A view of the French Senate in Paris on Feb. 1, 2023. / Credit: Victor Velter/Shutterstock

Paris, France, Oct 20, 2025 / 11:51 am (CNA).

In an unprecedented initiative, 86 French senators have signed a public appeal denouncing the alarming rise of anti-Christian acts in France and urging the government to take concrete measures to protect believers and places of worship.

The statement, led by Sen. Sylviane Noël of Haute-Savoie (southeastern France) and published on the conservative website “Boulevard Voltaire,” paints a grave picture of growing violence against churches and Christians across the country — and of what the signatories describe as a culpable indifference from public authorities.

“Not a week goes by without the regional daily press or social media informing us of these attacks, ranging from desecration and arson to physical assault,” the appeal warns.

According to data cited in the text, 322 anti-Christian acts were recorded in the first five months of 2025 alone — a 13% increase from the same period in 2024. The theft of liturgical objects has also surged by more than 20% in two years, with 820 cases reported in 2024 compared with 633 in 2022.

The appeal briefly cites a few emblematic incidents to illustrate this alarming trend. In the Landes region, at least 27 churches have been vandalized or desecrated in a matter of weeks, while in Nice, the defilement of a cross on Boulevard de la Madeleine has shocked the local population. 

The most emblematic case in recent months was the murder of Ashur Sarnaya, a 45-year-old Assyro-Chaldean Christian refugee from Iraq with a disability, while livestreaming on social media Sept. 10. His story became a symbol of both Christian endurance and the tragic vulnerability of believers in today’s France.

“He had fled Iraq and persecution to find refuge in our country,” the senators note, underlining the human cost and moral urgency of these acts of violence. 

They also recall the tragic 2016 killing of Father Jacques Hamel, who was murdered at the altar by a radicalized Muslim while celebrating Mass.

The senators denounce political and media circles for their indifference toward Christians. They observe that incidents involving other faiths often trigger immediate official reactions and extensive media coverage, while attacks on Christian sites frequently pass unnoticed.

To illustrate this imbalance, they compare the public outrage provoked by pig heads left outside several Paris mosques last month with the near silence following the burning of a Virgin Mary statue in Guingamp during a Mass for the feast of the Nativity of Mary on Sept. 8. 

While France has established reporting platforms and support systems for victims of antisemitic and anti-Muslim acts, no equivalent mechanism exists for anti-Christian incidents. 

“Today, we solemnly call on the government to act without delay,” the senators declare in the statement. “It is urgent to establish a national reporting and support system for victims of anti-Christian acts, accessible to the general public, clear, and effective.” 

“This disparity fosters among many believers the impression that some victims of religious violence are treated as less worthy of attention,” the appeal continues. “Amid this undeniable surge of hostility, many Christians in France feel increasingly abandoned.” 

The appeal insists that France’s motto — liberty, equality, and fraternity — must be applied equally to all believers.

“Liberty requires that every citizen be able to practice his or her faith without fear of threats or desecrations,” it says. “Equality demands that the state, at its highest level, deploy the same means of protection for all. Fraternity, finally, obliges us to consider that when a believer is wounded, it is the entire national community that is affected.” 

Without seeking to pit communities against one another, the senators conclude that protecting Christians is part of a broader effort to defend France’s unity.

“When a synagogue is desecrated, when a mosque is targeted, when a church is vandalized, it is always the same essential freedom that is threatened,” they write. “No hatred will ever be tolerated, no violence against a believer will ever be relativized.” 

This broader debate on the respect due to Christians in France has also been reignited by the controversy surrounding the film “Sacré Cœur,” which tells the story of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that began 350 years ago in Paray-le-Monial. Before its release, the film’s promotional posters were refused by national railway companies, citing “laïcité” (state secularism) and opposition to “proselytism.”

The decision sparked widespread backlash and underscored what many observers describe as a deeper hostility toward Christianity — an attitude that seeks to marginalize Christian presence and expression in the public sphere, even as faith continues to shape France’s moral and cultural identity. 

The All Ireland Rosary Rally has attracted increasingly larger crowds. This year’s rally included a youth conference and a prayer vigil in the basilica to welcome the feast of Pentecost on June 8, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the All Ireland Rosary Rally

Dublin, Ireland, Oct 19, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A new poll commissioned by the Iona Institute has found a marked revival of interest in religion among young people in Northern Ireland. 

The results are a clear reversal of the previous continuous decline by age. The youngest age group polled, 18- to 24-year-olds, now say they are more likely to have a “very positive” attitude of Christianity (30% vs. only 4% with a “very negative” view) than any other age group, even those over 65.

David Quinn of the Iona Institute told CNA: “What we are seeing in both parts of the island is some kind of revival of interest in religion among a segment of the youngest adults, the 18- to 24-year-olds.” He said a significant number of these young people are men.

The new poll, commissioned by the institute, was conducted by Amárach Research, a market research agency in Dublin, and based on a representative sample of 1,200 adults in Northern Ireland. It revealed that 40% of Catholics in Northern Ireland are regular Massgoers — which is double the percentage of Mass attendees in the Republic of Ireland, which was similarly surveyed earlier in the year by the same research agency.

The Iona Institute was keen to compare the findings in both the north and south of Ireland especially given the higher percentage of Protestant churches in the north.

One big finding of the poll is that Northern Ireland can no longer be viewed as being simply divided between Catholics and Protestants. The “Nones” — that is, those who say they don’t belong to any religion — have become a major force as well. This finding challenges the traditional sectarian stereotypes in Northern Ireland.

Quinn said he believes that indications of some kind of revival of interest in religion among the youngest age group surveyed should encourage all the churches. The finding is not an outlier. The revival of interest among young adults is consistent with poll findings in the Republic of Ireland, Britain, and the United States. In Britain, the phenomenon has been termed the “Quiet Revival.”

Will this growth in interest in the Catholic faith translate into active participation? 

Quinn is wary of making premature or rash claims about the poll results. He sees them as a challenge for the Catholic Church in Ireland. 

“I think the churches will need to get a lot better at finding ways to respond to this kind of revived interest… people like the Dominicans are able to do it, and some of the evangelicals are good at it as well,” he said. “But I think it’s something that the churches are going to have to have a real hard think about, because we’re very much stuck in the ‘decline stage’ mentality that says we’re all getting older and so what’s the point?”

Quinn said he believes that in the future there will probably be fewer “cultural Christians” — those who “say they are Christian but don’t practice.” He said that instead, society could be divided between those who hold religious belief and those who don’t, with few people in between.

“The overall conclusion, however, is that religion is not disappearing, contrary to past predictions,” he said.

Quinn said that throughout Ireland there’s “a lot of outright disengagement from religion,” adding: “You’ve got a growing number of people who say ‘I don’t have any religion.’ Cultural Christianity is beginning to fade — you know, the sort of person who said ‘I used to go to Mass the odd time’ isn’t going at all. There’s a growing number of people who don’t even bother with the sacraments at all. So … this kind of nonpracticing … type of Christianity is failing, and the ‘no religion’ group is increasing.”

The Iona Institute research shows that while the 18- to 24-year-old group had the highest number of respondents with a “very positive” attitude toward the Catholic Church (17%), half said they are neither religious nor spiritual. Those in this age group, however, said they are more likely to pray and read or watch religious content than people in the 25- to 34-year-old age group.

Of those surveyed in the poll, 28% said they are Catholic, 14% said they are Presbyterian, 11% said they are Church of Ireland, and 36% said they don’t belong to any religion. The rest belong to other Christian churches or religions.

Nearly 50% of respondents said they view Christianity favorably, though percentages were lower when specifically asked about the Catholic Church (23%) and Protestant churches (30%). The most unfavorable attitudes toward religion in general are among the nonreligious.

Fifty-six percent of the respondents said they are religious and/or spiritual — a slightly lower percentage than in the Republic of Ireland. Of those surveyed, 51% said they pray, 44% said they attend religious services (which does not mean regularly), 33% meditate, and 38% read religious or spiritual books such as the Bible.

The poll also revealed that Catholics have more favorable views of Protestant churches than the other way around.

Not unexpectedly, the sex abuse scandals are a big driver of unfavorable attitudes toward the Catholic Church throughout Ireland.

Father Custodio Ballester, a Spanish priest, was acquitted of hate crimes along with another priest and a journalist. / Credit: Photo courtesy of HazteOir.org

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 18, 2025 / 06:30 am (CNA).

Two priests and a journalist who were tried for criticizing radical Islam have been acquitted by the Provincial Court of Malaga in Spain. 

The priests, Custodio Ballester and Jesús Calvo, along with the director of a digital media outlet, Armando Robles, were accused of committing hate crimes on a talk show in 2017.

The public prosecutor’s office had requested a four-year prison sentence for Robles along with a 10-year ban from teaching and a 3,000-euro ($3,500) fine. In the case of the priests, the prosecutor sought a three-year sentence.

According to Europa Press, the ruling, after verifying that the defendants had not retracted their words and writings, which were treated as proven facts, focused its analysis on whether the spoken and written words were crimes. 

Specifically, the court determined whether the men’s statements criticizing radical Islam qualified as hate crimes under the law or were merely protected instances of freedom of expression.

The court determined that the elements of a hate crime were not present, “no matter how despicable and perverse the message” or how “clearly offensive” or “unfortunate” the statements.

“Not only is there speech protected by freedom of expression, but we could even accept that there is intolerant speech that also exists within the scope of freedom of expression, even though it may be offensive, not only to the group or person to whom it is directed but even to the person listening to it,” the ruling stated.

Regarding Ballester’s statement, the court determined that “no matter how despicable and perverse the message or its author may be, if it is not accompanied by a clear and manifest promotion of hatred toward one of the groups protected by [the existence of] such a crime,” it is not criminal.

In the case of Calvo, the court noted that his statements “could well be classified, at least in large part, as delirious,” in the sense of “a verifiable reality resulting from the delirious ideas and psychological ailments suffered by the accused.”

In 2017, the Association of Muslims Against Islamophobia filed a complaint with the Special Service for Hate Crimes and Discrimination of the Barcelona prosecutor’s office. The petition requested an investigation into comments made by the three men during a television talk show.

Since the program in question was located in Málaga, the case was transferred to that province. There, prosecutor María Teresa Verdugo not only evaluated the comments made during the discussion but also considered an article published in 2016 by Ballester. The text, titled “The Impossible Dialogue with Islam,” was written in response to a pastoral letter from the then-archbishop of Barcelona, ​​Cardinal Juan José Omella, titled “The Necessary Dialogue with Islam.”

The trial, initially scheduled for September 2024, had to be postponed because Ballester’s lawyer had another trial that took priority. The hearing was ultimately rescheduled for Oct. 1 of this year.

In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, shortly before the trial, Ballester said he felt at peace: “As Jesus Christ says, they will take us to the synagogue and the courts, and there the Holy Spirit will give us wisdom that our adversaries cannot counteract.”

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

St. Ignatius of Antioch with the child Jesus. / Credit: Lorenzo Lotto, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Oct 17, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Oct. 17, the Roman Catholic Church remembers the early Church Father, bishop, and martyr St. Ignatius of Antioch, whose writings attest to the sacramental and hierarchical nature of the Church from its earliest days.

Eastern Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate his memory on Dec. 20.

In a 2007 general audience on St. Ignatius of Antioch, Pope Benedict XVI observed that “no Church Father has expressed the longing for union with Christ and for life in him with the intensity of Ignatius.”

In his letters, the pope said, “one feels the freshness of the faith of the generation which had still known the apostles. In these letters, the ardent love of a saint can also be felt.”

Born in Syria in the middle of the first century A.D., Ignatius is said to have been personally instructed — along with another future martyr, St. Polycarp — by the apostle John. When Ignatius became the bishop of Antioch around the year 70, he assumed leadership of a local Church that, according to tradition, was first led by St. Peter before his move to Rome.

Although St. Peter transmitted his papal primacy to the bishops of Rome rather than Antioch, the city played an important role in the life of the early Church. Located in present-day Turkey, it was a chief city of the Roman Empire and was also the location where the believers in Jesus’ teachings and his resurrection were first called “Christians.”

Ignatius led the Christians of Antioch during the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian, the first emperor to proclaim his divinity by adopting the title “Lord and God.” Subjects who would not give worship to the emperor under this title could be punished with death. As the leader of a major Catholic diocese during this period, Ignatius showed courage and worked to inspire it in others.

After Domitian’s murder in the year 96, his successor, Nerva, reigned briefly and was soon followed by the emperor Trajan. Under his rule, Christians were once again liable to death for denying the pagan state religion and refusing to participate in its rites. It was during his reign that Ignatius was convicted for his Christian testimony and sent from Syria to Rome to be put to death.

Escorted by a team of military guards, Ignatius nonetheless managed to compose seven letters: six to various local Churches throughout the empire (including the Church of Rome) and one to his fellow bishop Polycarp, who would give his own life for Christ several decades later.

Ignatius’ letters passionately stressed the importance of Church unity, the dangers of heresy, and the surpassing importance of the Eucharist as the “medicine of immortality.” These writings contain the first surviving written description of the Church as “Catholic,” from the Greek word indicating both universality and fullness.

One of the most striking features of Ignatius’ letters is his enthusiastic embrace of martyrdom as a means to union with God and eternal life.

“All the pleasures of the world, and all the kingdoms of this earth, shall profit me nothing,” he wrote to the Church of Rome. “It is better for me to die on behalf of Jesus Christ than to reign over all the ends of the earth.”

“Now I begin to be a disciple,” the bishop declared. “Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let tearings, breakings, and dislocations of bones; let cutting off of members; let shatterings of the whole body; and let all the dreadful torments of the devil come upon me: Only let me attain to Jesus Christ.”

St. Ignatius of Antioch bore witness to Christ publicly for the last time in Rome’s Flavian Amphitheater, where he was mauled to death by lions.

“I am the wheat of the Lord,” he declared before facing them. “I must be ground by the teeth of these beasts to be made the pure bread of Christ.”

His memory was honored, and his bones venerated, soon after his death around the year 107.

This story was first published on Oct. 14, 2012, and has been updated.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin speaks at an Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) press conference in Rome, Italy, on Sept 28, 2017. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.

Vatican City, Oct 16, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

International Catholic nonprofit Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) will release its global religious freedom report in Rome next week with an Oct. 21 conference featuring the Vatican’s secretary of state and victims of religious persecution.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin will introduce the “Religious Freedom in the World Report 2025” with a speech at the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum conference center near the Vatican. 

The report, released every two years since 1999, is a global study of religious freedom and persecution across all countries and faith groups.

“Since the first edition of the RFR, the situation has steadily worsened, and unfortunately, this negative trend is expected to continue,” Marta Petrosillo, the report’s editor-in-chief, said in a press release published ahead of the report’s launch.

According to ACN, this year’s report highlights the continent of Africa, particularly the spread of jihadist violence into the countries of Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The daylong conference will feature the voices of religious freedom experts and persecuted Christians from Nigeria, Syria, India, Sudan, and Pakistan.

The second half of the day will also include a panel of speakers on the increasing restrictions to religious freedom in democratic societies in the West, including legal and cultural pressure, secularist intolerance, and challenges to public witness.

In 2024, ACN spent more than $150 million on thousands of projects in 137 countries.

In an audience with members of the nonprofit at the Vatican on Oct. 10, Pope Leo XIV emphasized the importance of their work, especially in a world that continues to “witness growing hostility and violence against those who hold different beliefs, including many Christians.”

Pope Leo XIV is shown here at the Holy Mass for the opening of the general chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine on Sept. 1, 2025 . / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 16, 2025 / 06:03 am (CNA).

The Order of St. Augustine and the Vatican Publishing House announced the publication of a new book by Pope Leo XIV, Robert Francis Prevost O.S.A., titled “Free Under Grace: Writings and Meditations 2001-2013.” The book will be presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, which opened Wednesday.

The tome will include, for the first time, the writings of the current pontiff during his term as prior general of the Augustinian Order, offering readers a "closer look at his spirituality," according to a statement from the Vatican Publishing House. It will include reflections, meditations, homilies, and addresses, all imbued with the characteristic Augustinian spirituality of the reigning pontiff.

The book will be published in Italian in the Spring of 2026. Spanish and English versions will also be available, the Vatican Publishing House confirmed to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

Fr. Joseph Lawrence Farrell, O.S.A., current prior general of the Augustinian Order, commented: “This book, which compiles many of the communications of the then prior general, Robert Francis Prevost, O.S.A., offers an overview of some of the important themes developed during his years at the head of the Order of Saint Augustine.”

Lorenzo Fazzini, editorial director of the Vatican Publishing House, said that “We are truly delighted to participate in the Frankfurt Book Fair by presenting this previously unpublished book by Robert Francis Prevost O.S.A. — Leo XIV — to publishers around the world.” Fazzini noted that “This text will allow readers to delve into the pope's writings during his time as an Augustinian religious and superior of his order. It is a highly anticipated volume for readers around the world.”

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

Apparition of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. / Credit: Alacoque, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Oct 16, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque — whose feast day is celebrated in the Catholic Church on Oct. 16 — was a French nun responsible for spreading the devotion of the Sacred Heart throughout the Western Church.

Born in July 1647, Margaret had a great love for God from a young age. Her father, Claude, passed away when she was 8 years old. From ages 9 to 13 she suffered a paralyzing illness. This, in addition to a struggle over her family’s property, made life difficult for Margaret and her mother. However, it was during her time suffering with the illness that she made the promise to enter religious life.

For some time during her adolescence, however, Margaret forgot about her vow and lived an ordinary life. It wasn’t until she had a vision one evening at age 22 that her life changed.

In the vision, Margaret saw Christ being scourged. She believed this meant that she had betrayed Jesus by living a worldly life instead of a religious one. It was then that she entered the convent.

In 1673, Margaret experienced Christ’s presence in a way she never had while praying. She heard Jesus tell her that he wanted to show his love for people by encouraging a special devotion to his Sacred Heart.

Christ revealed ways to venerate his Sacred Heart and explained the immense love he has for humanity, appearing with his heart visible outside his chest, on fire, and surrounded by a crown of thorns.

Christ told Sister Margaret Mary: “My Sacred Heart is so intense in its love for men, and for you in particular, that not being able to contain within it the flames of its ardent charity, they must be transmitted through all means.”

These visions continued for 18 months. When Margaret told her superior, she did not believe her.

On June 16, 1675, Jesus told Sister Margaret Mary to promote a feast that honored his Sacred Heart. He also gave Sister Margaret Mary 12 promises made to all who venerated and promoted the devotion of the Sacred Heart.

Soon after, Father Claude La Colombiere, a Jesuit, became Margaret’s spiritual director. He believed what she had to say and began to write down her revelations. Colombiere has since been canonized, and many have read his writings on the Sacred Heart.

Thanks to Colombiere, Margaret had found inner peace about her revelations being doubted by others. However, her writings and the accounts of others faced a thorough examination by Church officials.

Margaret died in 1690 and was canonized by Benedict XV on May 13, 1920.

The Vatican was at first hesitant to declare a feast to the Sacred Heart. But as the devotion spread throughout France, the Vatican granted the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to France in 1765.

In 1856, Blessed Pius IX designated the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart for the universal Church.

This article was first published on Oct. 16, 2022, and has been updated.

Pope Leo and Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich at the Vatican on Oct. 9, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/EWTN News

CNA Staff, Oct 15, 2025 / 15:43 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich to the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, the Holy See said on Wednesday. 

The Vatican made the announcement via a press release on Oct. 15. The commission functions as the legislative body of Vatican City. 

In addition to managing the many functions and activities of the Vatican City government — including security and public order, public health and the environment, economic activities, postal and customs services, and numerous other internal concerns — the commission also oversees the artistic complex of the Vatican Museums and their assets.

Laws proposed by the commission must be approved by the Holy Father. 

The Holy See said Leo also appointed to the commission Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar general for the diocese of Rome. 

The pope on Oct. 15 further confirmed the commission’s existing membership for the current term.

Still serving as the commission’s president is Sister Raffaella Petrini, FSE, whom Pope Francis appointed earlier this year as the first woman to hold that role.