Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican aecretary for eelations with atates. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 1, 2025 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

The Holy See’s secretary for relations with states, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, decried that attacks on Christians have intensified in recent years and accused the international community of “turning a blind eye.”

“The data show that Christians are the most persecuted religious group worldwide, and yet the international community seems to be turning a blind eye to their plight,” the English archbishop declared during his Sept. 29 address to the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly.

“Christians across the world are subjected to severe persecution, including physical violence, imprisonment, forced displacement, and martyrdom,” he added.

The Vatican diplomat noted that more than 360 million Christians live in areas where they experience high levels of persecution or discrimination, “with attacks on churches, homes, and communities intensifying in recent years.”

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the archbishop emphasized defending life from practices such as abortion and euthanasia.

In his speech, he insisted that the right to life, from conception to its natural end, is a “fundamental prerequisite for the exercise of all other rights” and condemned “the illegitimacy of every form of procured abortion and of euthanasia.”

‘Culture of death’

The Vatican diplomat criticized what he called a “culture of death” and called for international resources to be allocated to protecting life and supporting those in difficult situations so they can make life-affirming choices.

In particular, he emphasized the need to “enable those mothers to give birth to the child in their womb” and to “ease the burden of human suffering during illness through adequate health and palliative care.”

The archbishop also warned of the risks of a conception of freedom disconnected from objective and universal truth: “When freedom shuts out even the most obvious evidence of an objective and universal truth, which is the foundation of personal and social life, then the person ends up by his subjective and changeable opinion or interest.”

Gallagher stated that this vision of freedom leads to a “serious distortion” of life in society. “At that point, everything becomes negotiable and open to bargaining, even the first of the fundamental rights, the right to life,” he stated.

‘Deplorable practice’ of surrogacy

The representative of the Holy See also addressed the practice of surrogacy, highlighting it as another threat to human dignity: “Another issue that endangers the inviolable dignity of human beings by reducing them to mere products is the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child. The Holy See renews its call for an international ban of this deplorable practice.”

Gallagher also denounced the fact that in a world marked by “unprecedented wealth and technological advancement,” millions of people “still lack access to basic necessities.”

“The persistence of extreme poverty, particularly in regions afflicted by conflict, climate change, and systemic inequality, demands immediate and collective action,” he stated.

Foreign debt cancellation

Similarly, Gallagher called for the cancellation of the foreign debt of the poorest countries, emphasizing that these financial burdens “trap nations in poverty and must be canceled as a matter of justice.”

In this context, he said the Holy See urges the international community to “prioritize integral human development in a spirit of solidarity, ensuring that economic policies and development programs place the human person at their core and foster not only material well-being but also spiritual and social growth.”

In the words of the Vatican diplomat, the poor must be seen “not as a problem but as people who can become the principal builders of a new and more human future for everyone.”

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

null / Credit: Photographee.eu/Shutterstock

London, England, Oct 1, 2025 / 14:35 pm (CNA).

One of the United Kingdom’s leading experts in bioethics has warned that hospices may be forced to offer assisted death out of fear of losing their funding.

Pia Matthews, senior lecturer in health care ethics at St. Mary’s University, London, told CNA on Oct. 1 that if assisted dying is legalized in the U.K. this November, “there is real risk that funding to a hospice will depend on whether the hospice engages in the practice of facilitating assisted deaths, and this will put further pressure not only on staff but also on the survival of some hospices, which are already underfunded… Given that the very nature of assisted dying means that it is the cheaper option, this will inevitably have serious consequences for the funding of hospice care.”

She continued: “The argument in favor of assisted dying is that assisted dying offers choice to patients. Purely on a cost basis, choice will be taken away if hospices are not adequately funded and more people will be implicitly coerced into assisted suicide because they will feel they have no choice.”

The law on assisted suicide is expected to change in England and Wales after Member of Parliament Kim Leadbeater successfully introduced a private member’s bill in November 2024 called the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. The bill would legalize “assisted dying” for terminally ill adults with less than six months to live. Under current law in England and Wales, assisted suicide is illegal with the potential for imprisonment for up to 14 years.

Although Leadbeater’s bill passed successfully through the House of Commons, its passage has now slowed due to growing concerns about its safety and application. In a vote in the House of Lords on Sept. 19, peers voted in support of establishing a select committee to further scrutinize the highly controversial law.

Against this political climate, a report by BBC News on Sept. 29 revealed that hospices are being forced to cut services, despite growing demand.

Toby Porter, CEO of Hospice UK, told the BBC: “Over the last three years, hospice charities have seen accumulated cost pressures, but the money that they’ve received from the government has stayed flat, and that’s seen services cut back.”

“What would it say about us as a country if someone decided to opt for an assisted death because they were worried that they wouldn’t be able to get the care they needed to control their pain or manage their symptoms, or that their family wouldn’t be properly supported?”

Matthews told CNA that the very ethos of “assisted dying” was a threat to hospice care. 

“Hospice care does offer real choice at the end of life: choice about where to die, who will accompany the person, treatment and care options. This model of care is under threat from inadequate funding and it is under threat from the contrary ethos of assisted suicide because assisted suicide tells people that their fears are correct — they may die in pain and no one can help them, they can only rely on themselves, and their only recourse is to go for assisted suicide,” she said.

“Where hospice care is about solidarity and hope, assisted suicide entrenches fear of loss of control and therefore despair. If assisted dying is legalized, the line between recognizing when treatment is burdensome or futile for this patient and so should be withdrawn and deciding that this patient’s life is no longer of any worth so the patient can choose to have death hastened, will be blurred. Recognizing when treatment is appropriate is good medical practice; helping patients to take their own lives is not.”

Meanwhile, pro-life campaigners in the U.K. have also echoed concerns about the future of hospices under an “assisted dying” regime. 

Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right to Life UK, told CNA that “the apparent commitment in the form of a ‘blank check’ to fund a state-assisted suicide service, and the lack of any corresponding commitment to ensure full state funding for palliative or hospice care, risks creating a perverse push towards assisted suicide since one service could be readily available while the other is not.”

She added: “For vulnerable people near the end of their lives, it is especially concerning that assisted suicide could end up becoming the default, simply because it is available and better funded than palliative or hospice care.”

Robinson further said that “hospices urgently need more funding to perform their current duties of care.” She explained that introducing assisted suicide “would stretch an already over-encumbered sector dangerously thin.”

“It is also worrying that hospices would not be able to opt out of assisted suicide being provided on their premises,” she said. “This would likely mean that many hospices opposed to facilitating the deliberate ending of patients’ lives could be forced to close, further reducing the availability of end-of-life care.”

Pope Leo XIV and actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger address the opening day of the “Raising Hope for Climate Justice” conference held at a center near the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo on Oct. 1, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Oct 1, 2025 / 14:05 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV encouraged the world to unify around care for the planet as he took the stage at a climate justice conference headlined by actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger outside of Rome on Wednesday.

“We are one family, with one Father, who makes the sun to rise and sends rain on everyone (Mt 5:45),” Leo said Oct. 1 at a conference center in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. “We inhabit the same planet and must care for it together. I therefore renew my strong appeal for unity around integral ecology and for peace!”

The pontiff and Schwarzenegger addressed the opening day of the Oct. 1–3 “Raising Hope for Climate Justice” conference, held at a center near the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo.

Speakers at the gathering, promoted by the Laudato Si’ Movement in collaboration with international organizations, will include bishops, heads of international organizations, Indigenous leaders, climate and biodiversity experts, and representatives of civil society.

In remarks before the pope’s speech, Schwarzenegger cited the Catholic Church’s 1.4 billion members, 400,000 priests, and 200,000 churches as a “power … involved in our movement, in our environmental movement to terminate pollution.”

“And of course, I’m very honored to be here, because I am next to an action hero,” he added, gesturing toward Pope Leo. “The reason I call him an action hero is because as soon as he became pope, he ordered the Vatican to put solar panels on the buildings. This will be one of the first states to be carbon neutral. Let’s give him a big, big hand for this action.”

The “Terminator” actor suggested more people talk about the problem of pollution over “climate change” as an easier concept for people to understand: “We have to talk to the heart so people understand it.”

“I have a very clear vision that we can [terminate pollution] together,” he added.

The pope, in comments before his prepared remarks, said “there is indeed an action hero with us today, it’s all of you.”

Call to conversion

In his message, Leo praised Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical Laudato Si’ as a source of inspiration and dialogue that has prompted action to care for our common home.

“As with every anniversary of this nature, we remember the past with gratitude, but we also ask ourselves what remains to be done,” he said.

The pontiff said that in the 10 years since the publication of Laudato Si’, the focus has moved from studying the encyclical to putting it into practice.

“What must be done now to ensure that caring for our common home and listening to the cry of the earth and the poor do not appear as mere passing trends or, worse still, are seen and felt as divisive issues?” he asked.

Pope Leo’s speech also emphasized a need for spiritual renewal.

“The challenges identified in Laudato Si’ are in fact even more relevant today than they were 10 years ago,” he said. “These challenges are of a social and political nature, but first and foremost of a spiritual nature: They call for conversion.”

He encouraged people to grow in relationship with God, others, nature, and themselves, because “we cannot love God, whom we cannot see, while despising his creatures. Nor can we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ without participating in his outlook on creation and his care for all that is fragile and wounded.”

The pope expressed the hope that upcoming international summits at the United Nations, such as the 2025 Climate Change Conference (COP 30), the 53rd Plenary Session of the Committee on World Food Security, and the 2026 Water Conference, “will listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, families, Indigenous peoples, involuntary migrants, and believers throughout the world.”

He encouraged everyone, from young adults and parents to politicians, to do their part to find solutions to educational, cultural, and spiritual challenges. “There is no room for indifference or resignation,” he underlined.

Italian Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu (right) waits prior to the start of a consistory during which 20 new cardinals are to be created by Pope Francis on Aug. 27, 2022, in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. / Credit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images

Vatican City, Oct 1, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV said he will not interfere in the court case of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the former deputy Vatican secretary of state convicted of embezzlement, aggravated fraud, and abuse of office.

In response to a journalist who asked the pontiff about the “Becciu trial” on Tuesday evening outside Castel Gandolfo, Leo said “the trial must go forward” and that “he has no intention of interfering” in the legal proceedings underway.  

The pope’s comments were made about one week after the commencement of Becciu’s hearing before the Vatican Court of Appeal on Sept. 22, nearly two years after his conviction by the Vatican City State criminal court.

In December 2023, after a two-and-a-half-year trial, the Italian cardinal and former deputy Vatican secretary of state was convicted, alongside eight other defendants, of financial malfeasance. 

Becciu, the first cardinal to be tried by the Vatican tribunal, was dealt a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence, an 8,000 euro (about $9,400) fine, and a permanent disqualification from holding public office.

The other defendants who were also tried and found guilty were also given a variety of sentences. Five of those defendants — Raffaele Mincione, Enrico Crasso, Gianluigi Torzi, Fabrizio Tirabassi, and Cecilia Marogna — also received prison sentences of varying length.

The former Vatican deputy secretary of state has consistently protested his innocence, maintaining that he acted with papal approval or authority when he invested money or issued payments using Vatican funds.

The Vatican realized a $200 million loss following a highly speculative real estate deal in London’s Sloane Avenue negotiated by the Vatican Secretariat of State in 2014 while Becciu was in office.

The cardinal was also found guilty of making at least 125,000 euros (about $148,000) in unauthorized payments to his brother’s charity in Sardinia as well as approving more than 500,000 euros (about $590,000) be paid to geopolitical expert Marogna who, instead of using it for intelligence and a humanitarian mission to help free a kidnapped religious sister in Mali, was accused of spending the funds on luxury goods and travel.

Last October, the Vatican released its reasons for convicting Becciu, stating he was involved in the illicit use of Holy See funds despite having no “profit-making purpose” and stressing that the trial was fair.

Pope Leo XIV gives a blessing to all those present at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 1, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Oct 1, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday expressed his concern over the recent violent clashes between law enforcement and young protesters in Madagascar, which have left several dead and around 100 injured. 

Following the catechesis at the general audience on Oct. 1, the pontiff said: “Let us pray to the Lord that all forms of violence may always be avoided and that the constant pursuit of social harmony may be fostered through the promotion of justice and the common good.”

Madagascar is experiencing a serious social and political crisis following a series of mass protests that have left at least 22 dead and more than 100 injured. The demonstrations, led mostly by young people, erupted in the capital, Antananarivo, due to prolonged power and water outages that have affected the population for weeks. The protests quickly spread to other cities such as Mahajanga, Fenoarivo, and Diego Suárez, reflecting widespread discontent with the government of President Andry Rajoelina.

At the end of his public audience, Leo also recalled the Oct. 1 feast day of “St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, doctor of the Church and patron saint of missions.”

“May her example encourage each of us to follow Jesus on the path of life, bearing joyful witness to the Gospel everywhere,” he said.

Before the audience in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo stopped to bless an Italian-made replica of the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, in France, crafted entirely out of wheat stalks.

The Church’s mission

In his spiritual message at the audience, Pope Leo spoke about the Church’s mission to communicate the joy of the Resurrection without exerting power over others.

“This is the heart of the mission of the Church: not to administer power over others but to communicate the joy of those who are loved precisely when they did not deserve it,” he said.

He reminded Christians of their responsibility “to be instruments of reconciliation in the world.”

The pontiff dedicated his catechesis this week to the Resurrection and to Christ’s appearance afterward to the disciples in the Upper Room.

The risen Christ’s appearance, Leo said, “is not a bombastic triumph, nor is it revenge or retaliation against his enemies. It is a wonderful testimony to how love is capable of rising again after a great defeat in order to continue its unstoppable journey.”

The pope described how Christ appears to the apostles with meekness, demonstrating “the joy of a love greater than any wound and stronger than any betrayal.”

Appearing in the upper room, Jesus does not force his friends, the apostles, to accept the reality of his resurrection, he said. “His only desire is to return to communion with them, helping them to overcome the sense of guilt.”

Leo noted that it could be considered strange that Christ displayed his wounds to those who had disowned and abandoned him: “Why not hide those signs of pain and avoid reopening the wound of shame?”

The reason, he continued, is because Jesus is fully reconciled with what he has suffered. He has no resentment, he holds no grudges. “The wounds serve not to reproach but to confirm a love stronger than any infidelity.”

“They are the proof that, even in the moment of our failure, God did not retreat. He did not give up on us,” he added.

He invited Catholics to follow Jesus’ example and to not give in to the temptations of revenge or retaliation. “When we get up again after a trauma caused by others, often the first reaction is anger, the desire to make someone pay for what we have suffered. The Risen One does not react in this way,” said.

Another temptation after betrayal, the pontiff said, is to “mask our wounds out of pride, or for fear of appearing weak. We say, ‘it doesn’t matter,’ ‘it is all in the past,’ but we are not truly at peace with the betrayals that have wounded us.”

“At times we prefer to hide our effort to forgive so as not to appear vulnerable and to risk suffering again,” he added. “Jesus does not. He offers his wounds as a guarantee of forgiveness. And he shows that the Resurrection is not the erasure of the past but its transfiguration into a hope of mercy.”

Monsignor Melchor Sánchez de Toca, relator of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. / Credit: Diocese of Vitoria

ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 1, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Speaking at the School of Theology of Northern Spain in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the relator for the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Monsignor Melchor Sánchez de Toca, noted that the lives of the canonized saints “raise incisive questions that pierce our conscience.”

“Our hope lies in the beauty of a life lived to the fullest and its power to attract. The saints appear before us with the radiance of a life that attracts and invites,” he emphasized at an academic event on Sept. 26 marking the beginning of the school year.

During his inaugural lecture, Sánchez de Toca also stated that “the saints, along with Christian art, are the Church’s true apologetics. They are the credibility of the Gospel, incarnated not in ideas but in people of flesh and blood, because they reflect Christ.”

“There are lives of servants of God that are truly heroic, more admirable than imitable, imposing because of the radical nature of what they demand; there are lives hidden with Christ in God, in the solitude of the cloister, in the intimacy of a Christian home; and there are beautiful, truly luminous lives. Theology cannot do without any of them,” he added.

Divorce between holiness and theology

Appointed relator for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in March 2023 after 20 years working in the Dicastery for Culture and Education, Sánchez de Toca explained that while “knowledge and holiness have gone hand in hand in the lives of the great pastors and theologians of the great centuries,” there has increasingly been at work “an ever-widening divorce between holiness and theology.”

He noted that “after the great figures of St. Anselm, St. Thomas, and St. Bonaventure, it is difficult to find great saints among the teachers of theology.”

“The 20th century has been rich in great theological figures of the first order who can be counted among humanity’s greatest thinkers, but none of them has deserved the glory of the altars,” he explained.

Sánchez de Toca argued that “the knowledge of God proper to the saints develops far from the classrooms and corridors of theology schools: It grows in the street, in the factories, in poor neighborhoods, in family life, or in the society of a monastery, but rarely in theology classrooms.”

According to the relator, it seems “as if the knowledge of God proper to the saints is moving away from the university environment and at the same time, the knowledge of the faith taught in classrooms is disregarding the knowledge of the saints and any connection with them.”

Restoring the lost unity of theology

Sánchez de Toca also maintained that “there already exists in this life a certain imperfect participation in the divine light, either through the understanding of faith, the ‘scientia fidei’ (the knowledge of faith), or through intimate and personal union with God, the ‘scientia amoris’ (the knowledge of love).”

“It is necessary to reconcile these two theologies,” he emphasized, adding that “we need to restore the lost unity of theology, so that it may truly nourish the faith and not just the intellect, but rather be an introduction to the mysteries of God.”

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

Nigerian security officers during a military operation ahead of the gubernatorial elections in Benin City, Edo, Nigeria, on Sept. 17, 2020. / Credit: Oluwafemi Dawodu/Shutterstock

ACI Africa, Oct 1, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Testimonies of Nigerians kidnapped by jihadist Fulani herdsmen have revealed that hundreds of Christians are still being held by the Islamist group in the infamous Rijana Forest in the southern part of Nigeria’s Kaduna state.

In a statement shared with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, on Sept. 28, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) decried the persecution of Christians allegedly being held near a military post and said the victims must be freed.

Intersociety researchers quoted a report by TruthNigeria earlier this month called “Inside Rijana: Nigeria’s Forest of Hostage” that gathered testimonies from victims of jihadist attacks who reported being marched to the infamous Rijana enclave, a sprawling settlement hidden in the forest, “like a secret village of its own.”

The victims who were held by their kidnappers for months recounted seeing 11 major camps in Rijana, each holding more than 50 captives. They also saw 10 smaller camps with around 30 captives in each of them. The total number of Christian captives believed to be in the village as of August was 850.

Researchers at Intersociety said they find it inconceivable that the captives are held near military bases and that nothing is being done to rescue them.

“No fewer than 850 Christian hostages are languishing inside Rijana Forest, near a Nigerian army base and others in Kachia County, southern part of Kaduna state,” the researchers say, quoting the TruthNigeria report.

Decrying the laxity of Nigerian authorities when it comes to the situation of the Christians still languishing in Rijana, Intersociety researchers said: “The forest is located along Kaduna-Abuja Expressway and home to the Nigerian Army Table Hill Training Area and Army School of Artillery, among other military sites.”

Intersociety researchers noted that Kaduna state is “likely to have recorded the largest number of kidnapped Christians in Nigeria in the past nine or 10 months,” between Dec. 2, 2024, and Sept. 28, “with no fewer than 1,100 cases.”

Victims’ testimonies 

The TruthNigeria report details experiences of 32-year-old Esther Emmanuel and her 10-month-old daughter, Anita, who were kidnapped from their home in Gaude village, Kaduna state, on the night of June 4.

The same night, the Fulani terrorists behind the kidnapping also took 35-year-old farmer Maureen Mica.

Describing the Fulani terrorists’ hideout in Rijana, Mica told TruthNigeria: “I saw many big camps, about five, but there could be more. Each of them held over 50 hostages. There were also smaller camps with about 30 people each — more than 10 of those. Esther and I were kept in one of the smaller camps, numbering 30. Each camp is named after its commander. Ours was called Sanda, after the commander.”

She recounted that life inside the camp was brutal and that hostages survived on cornmeal, often without soup, and were regularly beaten.

“We sometimes went seven days without food,” Mica said, adding: “If baby Anita cried, the terrorists flogged both the baby, her mother, and me.”

Confirming the cruelty, Emmanuel told TruthNigeria: “They warned us never to speak, never to look them in the eye, and never to say Christian prayers. Once, when my baby cried, I tried to breastfeed her. One terrorist snatched her from me. Instead of soothing her, he covered her mouth and nose, choking her. I had to wrestle her back.”

“Prayer was our only consolation,” she said. “In our camp, they executed two people because their parents could not pay ransom. In the bigger camps, executions were more frequent. Anytime we heard gunfire, we knew someone had been killed. Four bursts usually meant two people had been executed.”

Meanwhile, the Intersociety researchers called on the military in Nigeria to go back to how it was before it lost the people’s trust.

The researchers said that before June 2015, the Nigerian military was known for “neutrality, secularity, and semi-professionalism” — qualities they said raised its public trust and confidence among Nigerians.

Over the years, the trust that Intersociety estimates was at 45% “drastically reduced to less than 20% … especially among civilian citizens of the east and members of minority ethnic and religious groupings in the north.”

Intersociety researchers pointed out a lack of neutrality among the military authorities, as the situation is characterized by “romance with jihadist bandits and their allies in the north,” they said.

The group decried “negotiations and pacifications” between the military and jihadist bandits, noting that the situation has made it difficult for the Nigerian government and the country’s security forces and their commanders to successfully extricate themselves from involvement in attacks, especially those targeting Christians.

The researchers said they find it inconceivable that while jihadists are freely brandishing guns in their attacks against vastly Christian populations, Christians on the other hand are not allowed to keep any weapons to defend themselves.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux. / Credit: Public domain

CNA Staff, Oct 1, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, also known as the Little Flower, on Oct. 1.

Born to Zelie and Louis Martin in 1873 — both canonized saints — Thérèse was the youngest of five siblings. Devout from a young age, she experienced a miraculous healing at around the age of 9 from an unknown illness for which doctors could not find a treatment. After turning to the Blessed Virgin Mary for her intercession, young Thérèse was healed and felt called to religious life.

In 1888, at the age of 15, she entered a Carmelite monastery in Lisieux, France. Her ability to live her ordinary life in an extraordinary way became known as the “Little Way” — a journey toward Christ made up of small acts of love in everyday life.

In 1896, Thérèse was diagnosed with tuberculosis and passed away at the age of 24 the following year. Pope Pius XI canonized her in 1925, making her the youngest canonized saint at the time. In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a doctor of the Church for her significant spiritual contribution to the universal Church. 

Over the years, the St. Thérèse Novena has become popular for those seeking to live a life of love and simplicity. While many pray it leading up to her feast day, the nine-day novena can be prayed any time of the year. Here’s how to pray it:

— Begin by making the sign of the cross.

— Recite the Holy Spirit prayer: 

Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of divine love.

— Recite the following prayer:

Dearest St. Thérèse of Lisieux, you said that you would spend your time in heaven doing good on earth.

Your trust in God was complete. Pray that he may increase my trust in his goodness and mercy as I ask for the following petitions: [state your intentions]

Pray for me that I, like you, may have great and innocent confidence in the loving promises of our God. Pray that I may live my life in union with God’s plan for me and one day see the face of God, whom you loved so deeply.

St. Thérèse, you were faithful to God even unto the moment of your death. Pray for me that I may be faithful to our loving God. May my life bring peace and love to the world through faithful endurance in love for God our savior.

Loving God, you blessed St. Thérèse with a capacity for a great love. Help me to believe in your unconditional love for each of your children, especially for me.

I love you, Lord. Help me to love you more!

— Recite the “Glory Be” prayer:

Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 

— Conclude by making the sign of the cross.

Pope Leo XIV prays during his general audience on Sept. 24, 2025, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Oct 1, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention for the month of October is for collaboration between different religious traditions.

In a video released Sept. 30, the Holy Father asked the faithful to “pray that believers in different religious traditions might work together to defend and promote peace, justice, and human fraternity.”

In the video, Pope Leo recites an original prayer written specifically for this month’s prayer intention.

Here is Pope Leo’s full prayer:

Lord Jesus,

You, who in diversity are one

and look lovingly at every person,

help us to recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters,

called to live, pray, work, and dream together.

We live in a world full of beauty,

but also wounded by deep divisions.

Sometimes religions, instead of uniting us,

become a cause of confrontation.

Give us your Spirit to purify our hearts,

so that we may recognize what unites us

and, from there, learn again how to listen

and collaborate without destroying.

May the concrete examples of peace,

justice, and fraternity in religions

inspire us to believe that it is possible to live

and work together, beyond our differences.

May religions not be used as weapons or walls,

but rather lived as bridges and prophecy:

making the dream of the common good credible,

accompanying life, sustaining hope,

and being the yeast of unity in a fragmented world.

Amen.

The video prayer intention is promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.

U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois. / Credit: Public domain

CNA Staff, Sep 30, 2025 / 20:02 pm (CNA).

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, will decline an award from the Archdiocese of Chicago after global backlash over his strong pro-abortion views that included comments from Pope Leo XIV and criticism from U.S. bishops.

Chicago archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich announced Durbin’s decision in a Sept. 30 statement, revealing that Durbin informed the prelate that he “decided not to receive [the] award” at the archdiocesan Keep Hope Alive celebration on Nov. 5. Durbin was scheduled to receive a “Lifetime Achievement Award for support to immigrants” at the event.

Cupich’s announcement brings an end to a chaotic late September in which his brother bishops in the U.S. criticized the decision to grant Durbin the award, citing the Democratic senator’s long track record of pro-abortion politics.

The controversy even reached the Vatican itself, where on Sept. 30 Pope Leo XIV — responding to a question from EWTN News — said it was “important to look at the overall work that a senator has done [during] 40 years of service in the United States Senate.”

“I understand the difficulty and the tensions,” the Holy Father said. “But I think as I myself have spoken in the past, it’s important to look at many issues that are related to the teachings of the Church.”

Multiple U.S. bishops and archbishops criticized the decision. Springfield, Illinois, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, who presides over Durbin’s home diocese, described the senator as “unfit to receive any Catholic honor.”

‘Total condemnation is not the way forward’

In his lengthy statement on Tuesday, Cupich said the decision to grant Durbin the award “was specifically in recognition of his singular contribution to immigration reform and his unwavering support of immigrants, which is so needed in our day.”

The prelate said divisions within the Catholic Church have “dangerously deepen[ed]” over the course of the half-century that he has served as a priest and the more-than-quarter-century he has served as a bishop.

“The tragedy of our current situation in the United States is that Catholics find themselves politically homeless,” he said. “The policies of neither political party perfectly encapsulate the breadth of Catholic teaching.”

The archbishop argued against “total condemnation” of Catholic politicians who fail to adhere to the “essential elements” of Catholic social teaching. Such broad criticism, he said, “shuts down discussion.”

“But praise and encouragement can open it up, by asking their recipients to consider how to extend their good work to other areas and issues,” he said. “More broadly, a positive approach can keep alive the hope that it is worth talking to one another — and collaborating with one another — to promote the common good.”

Cupich said he had hoped that the Keep Hope Alive celebration would raise awareness of the similarity between the Church’s defense of migrants and its defense of “the vulnerable on the border between life and death.” He argued, meanwhile, that the Chicago Archdiocese was not “softening” its position on abortion.

“The Catholic bishops heroically responded when the right to life of the unborn was negated by the 1973 decisions of the Supreme Court,” he said. “That right to life still needs to be defended without compromise.” The U.S. bishops have likewise “long invested our energy and resources” in defending immigrants, he said.

The archbishop in his statement proposed “synodal gatherings” for Catholics “to experience listening to each other with respect on these issues, all the while remaining open to maturing more fully in their common identity as Catholics.” Cupich said he would be seeking input on those gatherings.

“We can move forward if we Keep Hope Alive,” he said.