Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

View of the Greek island of Syros. / Credit: Hans Peter Schaefer/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

CNA Newsroom, Aug 21, 2025 / 10:51 am (CNA).

Prosecutors on the Greek island of Syros have filed felony charges against two Catholic clerics and six civilians in connection with the alleged embezzlement and money laundering of more than 3 million euros ($3.3 million) in diocesan funds.

The indictments this month follow an investigation that began in late 2024 when Greece’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority uncovered suspicious financial transfers from the Catholic Diocese of Syros to accounts linked to nightclub operations, Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported.

The probe discovered that church funds had allegedly been diverted to businesses involved in prostitution, drugs, and protection schemes over eight years, according to ProtoThema.

Prosecutors have charged two Catholic priests along with six civilians in connection with embezzlement exceeding 120,000 euros, complicity in embezzlement, and money laundering.

Central to the case is a 53-year-old nightclub owner from Patra. According to investigators, the businessman allegedly used church funds to sublet nightclub operations, serving as what prosecutors consider the “mastermind” of the scheme.

The financial misconduct prompted swift action from the Vatican.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Petros Stefanou’s resignation in April and appointed Archbishop Sevastianos Rossolatos, emeritus of Athens, as apostolic administrator of the diocese pending a permanent replacement.

The scandal affects one of the smallest Catholic communities in predominantly Eastern Orthodox Greece, where Catholics represent only about 50,000 of Greece’s 10.7 million people.

Located in the Cyclades island chain in the Aegean Sea, about 78 nautical miles southeast of Athens, Syros serves as the administrative center for the Catholic Diocese of Syros with Milos and Santorini.

The Anti-Money Laundering Authority’s investigation resulted in the freezing of bank accounts belonging to the accused civilians. Notably, the Catholic Church foundations’ accounts themselves were not frozen during the probe, ProtoThema reported.

The scandal has drawn particular attention due to its apparent connection to organized crime elements and the significant duration of the alleged financial misconduct.

Greek authorities traced suspicious transactions back eight years, with the most recent transfer of 50,000 euros occurring shortly before the investigation became public in late 2024, according to Euronews.

Following the Anti-Money Laundering Authority’s findings, Aegean Appellate Prosecutor Odysseas Tsormpatzoglou ordered a preliminary criminal investigation and summoned all accused parties to provide testimony before investigating judges on Syros, ProtoThema reported.

The Catholic Church in Greece initially stated it was unaware of the priests’ alleged actions when the scandal first emerged, Euronews reported.

The Kiruna Church on the move in northern Sweden, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. / Credit: TorbjørnS/Wikimeda (CC BY 4.0)

CNA Newsroom, Aug 20, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Sweden’s beloved Kiruna Church is concluding a carefully choreographed crawl across the Arctic mining town on Wednesday, completing a two-day, 3-mile journey that successfully saved the 113-year-old Lutheran landmark from destruction.

The mammoth move has seen the wooden structure, weighing over 600 tons, transported on specialized trailers traveling at about 1,600 feet per hour.

Located 90 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden’s far northern Lapland region, Kiruna is not only the northernmost city in Sweden but also sits atop one of the planet’s richest iron ore deposits, which has been mined continuously since the 1890s.

The relocation is part of Kiruna’s broader urban transformation, required because of subsidence — the gradual sinking of the ground triggered by the nearby iron ore mine.

More recently, Europe’s largest deposit of rare earths was located in the area. 

Sweden’s most beautiful building

Lena Tjärnberg, vicar of the Protestant parish, blessed the beginning of the historic relocation on Monday morning, acknowledging both the necessity and heartbreak of departing the church’s original site after more than a century of ministry.

“The church is leaving from a place where it truly belongs,” Tjärnberg told the BBC, which covered the unprecedented engineering feat.

“Everyone understands that it must be moved: We live in a mining community that depends on the mine.”

The red wooden church — voted Sweden’s most beautiful building constructed before 1950 in a 2001 national poll — was designed by architect Gustaf Wickman between 1909 and 1912 as a gift from LKAB, the state-owned mining company, to the local congregation.

LKAB’s expanding mining operations created the crisis requiring the church’s relocation.

The company announced in 2004 that mining near Kiruna’s city center threatened to damage inhabited areas and infrastructure in the coming decades.

The relocation required extensive engineering preparation spanning eight years and costing an estimated 500 million Swedish kronor ($52 million). Roads along the route were widened to 79 feet, and a viaduct was demolished to accommodate the massive structure measuring 131 feet wide, according to SVT, Sweden’s national broadcaster.

Special attention protected the church’s cultural treasures, particularly the large organ with over 2,000 pipes and Prince Eugen’s art nouveau painting called “The Holy Grove.”

An estimated 10,000 spectators are gathering to witness the historic move in the town of 18,000 residents, according to Dagens Nyheter, one of Sweden’s leading newspapers. 

King Carl XVI Gustaf is expected to attend, visiting the church during its journey and participating in ceremonial events, SVT reported.

‘Slow TV’ coverage of the move

The Swedish broadcaster provides live coverage of the entire relocation as “slow TV,” billing it as “The Great Church Move.”

The broader urban transformation affects approximately 3,000 homes, 1,000 workplaces, two schools, the city hospital, two highways, and national rail infrastructure over a 30-year period. About 6,000 residents — representing one-third of urban Kiruna’s population — must be resettled as LKAB continues mining operations.

The Svenska kyrkan (Church of Sweden) parish announced the church is scheduled to reopen to visitors at the end of 2026, following restoration work at its new location near Kiruna’s cemetery and new city center. 

The bell tower, moved separately from the church, will be reunited with the main structure.

The relocation has generated protest from within Sweden’s Sami community, with some saying traditional reindeer herding territories have been disrupted by the mining expansion, SVT reported.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux. / Credit: Sistermaryhelen, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Every year on Aug. 20, the Catholic Church honors St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the 12th-century monk who helped to build up the Cistercian order — some of whom are known today as the Trappists.

Bernard is considered the last of the Church Fathers in the Western tradition.

He was born during the year 1090 near the French town of Dijon. His father, Tescelin, and his mother, Aleth, belonged to the highest class of nobility in the region and had six other children. Bernard, their third child, received an especially good education in response to a local man’s prophecy that he was destined for great things.

After his mother’s death, Bernard began to consider a life of solitude and prayer. At Citeaux, near Dijon, a group of monks had gathered in 1098 with the intention of returning to St. Benedict’s original rule of monasticism from the sixth century. Bernard, together with 30 other noblemen of Dijon, sought to join this monastery around the year 1113.

Three years into his life as a monk of Citeaux, Bernard received a commission from his abbot to become the head of a new monastery, practicing the same rule of life. Bernard himself dubbed the new monastery’s location “Clairvaux,” or “Clear Valley.”

In his zeal to set an example for the Cistercian monastic reform, Bernard lived a life of such severe penance that his health suffered and his superiors had to persuade him to be more moderate. Meanwhile, the monastery thrived and attracted a large number of men, including Bernard’s five brothers and his widowed father.

In 1119, Bernard played an important role in the first general chapter of the Cistercian order, which drew up its constitutions and rules. The following year, he composed a treatise on the vice of pride and the virtue of humility as well as a series of homilies in praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He also defended the Cistercians against charges from other monks, who claimed that their rule was too severe.

At the local Council of Troyes, in 1128, Bernard assisted the cardinal bishop of Albano in resolving internal disputes within the Church of Paris. At this same council, Bernard outlined the rule of life for the Knights Templars, the Catholic military order charged with the defense of the Holy Land. Bernard developed the ideals of Christian knighthood in his writings addressed to the Templars.

These were not the abbot of Clairvaux’s last forays into civil and religious controversies. He also defended the Church’s freedom against the intrusions of temporal rulers, and he admonished bishops who had abandoned their sees. In 1130, he had the responsibility of determining which of two rival clerics — both claiming to have been elected pope — would ultimately occupy the chair of Peter.

Bernard became a close adviser to Pope Innocent II, who prevailed in the controversy. Further threats to the Church’s peace and unity occupied him for much of the 1130s, although he continued to produce important writings, including his commentary on the biblical Song of Songs. He also sent monks to establish new Cistercian monasteries throughout Western Europe.

One of Bernard’s own Cistercian monks became Pope Eugene III in 1145, prompting Bernard to write him a letter of instructions that subsequent popes have found valuable. When Eugene declared a crusade for the protection of Christians in Antioch and Jerusalem during 1146, he appointed Bernard to strengthen the faith of the crusaders with his preaching.

The “Second Crusade,” however, failed in its attempt to take the Syrian city of Damascus. This was a heavy blow to Bernard’s cause, and he received undue blame for a defeat more likely due to political intrigue and military misconduct. Bernard sent a letter to the pope stating that the crusade failed because of the moral failings of its participants.

Pope Eugene III, Bernard’s onetime disciple and close friend, died in 1153 and was eventually beatified. Bernard died the same year, at the age of 63, having spent 40 years as a monk. He had personally founded 163 Cistercian monasteries, a number that had more than doubled by the time of his death.

Pope Alexander III canonized St. Bernard of Clairvaux in 1174. During the 19th century, Pope Pius VIII declared him a doctor of the Church.

This story was first published on Aug. 14, 2011, and has been updated.

Young people on the esplanade of Tor Vergata during the vigil with Pope Leo XIV. / Credit: Courtesy of Claudia Arrieta

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 19, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Two weeks ago, 1 million young people returned to their countries after participating in the Jubilee of Youth, an experience that undoubtedly left a profound mark on their lives of faith. Now, beyond what they experienced in Rome, they have a mission: to take that message and testimony home.

In the days leading up to the long-awaited event, Pope Leo XIV exhorted a group of young Peruvian pilgrims to “keep everything you live in these days in your heart, but not to conserve it only for yourselves. This is very important: Let what you will experience here be not only for yourselves. We must learn how to share.”

Being an example of the love of Jesus Christ

Marta Zambrano, a 25-year-old Spaniard who participated as a volunteer in the jubilee, reflected on this calling. Speaking to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, she noted that those of us “who have been fortunate enough to experience the jubilee have a very important mission.”

The young woman from Cádiz is clear about that mission: “To be witnesses of the faith and pass on the teachings of everything we have learned from the testimonies, catechesis, homilies of the Holy Father... even from our own experience or encounter with Jesus Christ.”

For the young Spaniard, the best way to share everything she experienced is “by setting an example with our attitude and reflecting the love that Jesus Christ poured out on us.”

In particular, she emphasized the need for others “to see in us that joy and that we know we are loved by Christ, which makes us different from the rest of the people in this world” that tries to pull people in the wrong direction. 

Zambrano said she hopes that by exuding that light and joy, the people around her can say: “I want that in my life too.”

She explained that people will thus be able to “bring the world closer to the path of truth and life, of fulfillment and true happiness and peace of heart, which is Jesus Christ.”

A clearer and more hopeful outlook

Claudia Arrieta, 29, from Madrid, said the best way to bear witness is by example: “changing our way of thinking, speaking, interacting, working, and relating to others in our daily lives. That those around us see a change in us, that they ask themselves why we have this way of being with others.”

“The best way to tell the world about what we experienced in Rome this summer is for each of the pilgrims who attended the gathering with the pope to return to our lives with a clearer and more hopeful outlook,” she added.

She also told ACI Prensa her hope that the words Pope Leo XIV addressed to young people inviting them to seek holiness would be “a message that comes directly from God for mankind.” 

“The pope,” the young Spaniard added, “is an instrument that God uses to tell us all to be holy in our relationships.”

She said one of the gifts given in the pilgrim's “kit” was a rosary and that “since I returned, I see people with the jubilee rosary on the street, in a restaurant, at the supermarket, at Mass,” she said.

Prayer and discernment to take in what they experienced

María Fernanda de Luna Martínez, a 34-year-old Mexican, traveled to Rome with 48 young people from different parts of her country. For her, sharing what she experienced in Rome “is a very great responsibility and duty.”

De Luna, who works in the social communications department of the Salesians in Mexico, said she believes an experience like this generates “many emotions and feelings that take time to settle in.”

When young people return home, she noted, they sometimes “arrive all revved up and eager to take on the world.” She therefore advised “discernment, prayer, accompaniment, and community” so that they don’t quickly forget what they’ve experienced and avoid becoming discouraged.

In this context, she specified that it’s important to ask three questions: “What moved me during the jubilee? What impacted me the most? What does God want from me with this?”

The answers, she said, “can shed light on where to begin,” and it should begin at home, with friends and the community. “Let our commitment be to bring someone else to an upcoming event, like World Youth Day in Seoul in 2027, so that that person may also bear witness that the Church is alive and that there are indeed young people in it, in love with Jesus.”

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

Archbishop Guy de Kirimel of Toulouse, France. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Diocese of Toulouse

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 18, 2025 / 15:34 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Guy de Kirimel of Toulouse, France, has reversed his decision to appoint a priest convicted of rape as chancellor of the archdiocese and asked forgiveness of the victims of abuse, whom he had no intention of offending, according to a statement released Aug. 16.

“In order not to cause division among bishops, and not to remain at a standoff between those for and against, I decided to reverse my decision; this has now been done, with the appointment of a new chancellor,” the archbishop said.

The reversal of the appointment of Father Dominique Spina, a priest sentenced in 2006 to five years in prison for raping a 16-year-old boy in 1993, came after the French Bishops’ Conference asked the archbishop on Aug. 11 to “reconsider the decision.”

The French prelates stated at the time that “an appointment of such importance, both canonically and symbolically, can only reopen wounds, arouse suspicions, and disconcert the people of God.”

Speaking about sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic Church in France, the bishops noted that “we have learned to look at these events first from the point of view of the people who were their victims and who suffer the consequences for the rest of their lives.”

“This shift in perspective,” the bishops continued, has initiated “a long and demanding work of conversion, which we are determined to continue.”

Accepting the request of the French bishops, De Kirimel appointed Father Léopold Biyoki as the new chancellor of the Archdiocese of Toulouse, effective Sept. 1.

Asking for forgiveness

“My decision was interpreted by many as a snub to victims of sexual abuse; I ask forgiveness of the victims. That was obviously not my intention,” the archbishop wrote in the Aug. 16 statement.

“Others in the end saw it as a sign of hope for abusers who had served their time and are experiencing the great trial of being totally shunned by society. For that I must ask forgiveness from the one I named and in whom I have confidence, for not having known how to find the right place to which he is entitled,” the archbishop further explained.

In his statement, De Kirimel asked: “How can we find the right attitude that does not force us to take one side to the detriment of the other? How can we keep the primary focus on the victims without forever rejecting the guilty?”

After pointing out that in abuse there is always irreparable damage and recalling that Jesus in the Gospel forgives the sins of Paul, who persecuted Christians, or of Mary Magdalene, who was once a prostitute, the archbishop noted: “We believe that justice is not opposed to mercy, mercy is not opposed to justice” and urged continued “reflection on this issue.”

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

Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Stockholm at a consistory in St. Peter’s Basilica on June 28, 2017. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Oslo, Norway, Aug 18, 2025 / 12:17 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Anders Arborelius issued a pointed call for unity in the Diocese of Stockholm, clarifying the canonical status of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) and cautioning Swedish Catholics against choices that might undermine ecclesial communion.

The cardinal’s statement, released Aug. 15 on the solemnity of the Assumption, responded to controversy following episcopal acts performed in the diocese by Bishop Bernard Fellay, former superior general of the SSPX, without the knowledge or consent of the diocesan bishop.

According to the official clarification from the Diocese of Stockholm, the bishop of Stockholm alone exercises supervision over liturgical life within his jurisdiction, and no other bishop may perform ecclesial acts in the diocese without his permission, as required by canon law and the directives of the Holy See. The document noted that Fellay had conducted episcopal functions “without our bishop’s knowledge,” an act described as contrary to canon law and a cause of “division and discord,” EWTN Norway reported.

The diocese made clear that the SSPX does not live or act in communion with the Holy See, and its canonical status remains unclear.

Sacraments received from priests of the SSPX were described as “valid but illicit” (valid but not permitted), and the faithful were urged to avoid them.

The clarification added that such sacraments could not be entered into parish records — affecting access to baptismal or confirmation certificates — and that SSPX priests are not permitted to celebrate Mass anywhere in the diocese.

Arborelius specifically referenced Pope Leo XIV’s emphasis on strengthening the Church’s internal unity from the beginning of his pontificate, noting that “only from this interior unity can we contribute to fostering unity with other Christians.”

The cardinal emphasized that 2025 — both the jubilee year and the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea — provided key occasions to renew faith in “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”

The Diocese of Stockholm stressed that Catholics who receive sacraments administered by the SSPX must understand that such participation “expresses a lack of unity with the diocesan bishop and Pope Leo XIV.”

The statement added that privately inviting church leaders to the diocese violated canon law and fostered division.

Arborelius tied the importance of unity to the jubilee year and the Nicaea anniversary, describing the Eucharist as the “sacrament of unity” and warning against anything that might sow division. He prayed for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, urging Catholics to remain steadfast in the unity entrusted by Christ to the apostles and their successors.

The diocese’s detailed clarification reaffirmed that the Church must guard her most sacred treasure — the sacraments — and that sacraments must always be celebrated in communion with the diocesan bishop and the pope.

The Society of St. Pius X was founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in Switzerland to preserve traditional Catholic practices amid the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Lefebvre’s 1988 consecration of four bishops without papal approval led to his excommunication and that of the bishops, deemed a “schismatic act” by Pope John Paul II.

Although Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications in 2009, the group remains outside full communion with the Church.

Recent Vatican concessions include Pope Francis granting SSPX priests the faculty to hear confessions validly in 2015 and authorizing diocesan oversight for valid SSPX marriages in 2017.

The Vatican has included a pilgrimage by SSPX on its official calendar for the 2025 Jubilee Year. In preparation for the pilgrimage, the SSPX reported that it began a novena to the Immaculate Conception on Aug. 11.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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