Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a Senate hearing on Sept. 4, 2025, that the FDA review of abortion pill safety concerns is ongoing. / Credit: Carl DMaster/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 4, 2025 / 17:02 pm (CNA).

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) testified during a Senate hearing on Sept. 4 that a federal review of the safety concerns related to the abortion pill is still ongoing.

Kennedy told the Senate Finance Committee that former President Joe Biden’s administration “twisted the data” to downplay health concerns about the abortion pill mifepristone.

“We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore,” Kennedy said. “We’re producing honest science and gold-standard science on that.”

Republican Sens. James Lankford and Steve Daines both pressed Kennedy on their concerns about the drug during the Thursday hearing.

Kennedy was unable to say when the review would be completed or whether HHS or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would move toward regulating mifepristone more strictly. However, he committed to keeping the senators up to date on any developments. 

The FDA is “getting data in all the time — new data that we’re reviewing,” he said.

Daines, the founder of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, referenced a study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) that found that 11% of women who take the abortion pill suffer at least one “serious adverse event” within 45 days. The study reviewed the insurance claims of 865,727 women who used the drug to calculate that number.

“That is 22 times higher than the FDA’s long-standing estimate of less than 0.5%,” Daines told Kennedy. “... For years we’ve heard the misleading and frankly very harmful lie that’s being sold to women that this drug is ‘as safe as Tylenol.’ These lies sadly have real-world consequences.”

Both Daines and Lankford expressed concern about the deregulation of mifepristone under both the Biden and Obama administrations.

The FDA reduced the number of in-person doctor visits required to obtain mifepristone from three to one in 2016 and then to zero in 2023. Another 2016 change ended requirements that mifepristone be dispensed by a physician, taken in a doctor’s office, and monitored in a follow-up visit. 

Another 2023 change permitted mail delivery of the drugs.

Daines said the FDA “has steadily stripped away safeguards related to this drug” and asked Kennedy whether the Trump administration would reverse the Biden administration’s deregulation.

Kennedy told Daines he needs to check with the White House to know its position on that and would “need to get back to you on that” by next week.

In December 2024, Trump told Time magazine that he was committed to ensuring the abortion pill remains legally available. However, he also directed Kennedy to facilitate studies on the safety of the drug.

“Those studies are progressing and … they’re ongoing,” Kennedy said in the hearing.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in a statement published after the hearing thanked the senators for raising those concerns and thanked Kennedy and the administration for reviewing safety concerns about the drug.

“We are grateful that Secretary Kennedy confirmed the FDA’s review of abortion drugs is now underway and look forward to his promised release of new data after years of the Biden administration ignoring this urgent issue,” she said. “Secretary Kennedy even revealed that Biden’s FDA ‘twisted’ data to bury safety signals.”

Dannenfelser warned that “as women and children are harmed, these dangerous drugs continue to be bought and sold with no commonsense safeguards and no accountability.”

“We look forward to hearing the update on restoring the in-person dispensing of mifepristone,” she said.

More than half of all abortions nationwide are now conducted chemically with pills, including mifepristone.

The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 to complete abortions through the first seven weeks of pregnancy. In 2016, the FDA expanded its approval to the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

At 10 weeks of pregnancy, an unborn child has a fetal heartbeat, early brain activity, and partially developed eyes, lips, and nostrils. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, which cuts off the child’s supply of oxygen and nutrients to kill the unborn child. A second pill, misoprostol, helps expel the body from the mother by essentially inducing labor.

Father Rafael Ángel Ciro. / Credit: Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 15:54 pm (CNA).

The bishop of Paterson, New Jersey, Kevin J. Sweeney, offered the funeral Mass for Father Rafael Ángel Ciro, a 45-year-old Colombian priest who died by suicide on Aug. 27. In a heartfelt homily on Sept. 3, Sweeney recalled that Jesus, who understands our pain and suffering, “is here and comforts us.”

In his opening remarks in both English and Spanish, the bishop addressed the priest’s mother, Elena Guarín, and his brother Jairo, saying: “We are with you, with you and the entire family there in Colombia. We are all one family, with our Bishop Emeritus [Arthur] Serratelli, with all the priests. We are also your children, Doña Elena: The mother of one priest is the mother of all priests. You are also our mom.”

“We share the pain, but we also share the faith, especially with the community of St. Stephen and all the parishes where Father Rafael served as a priest,” the prelate continued.

Jesus understands our pain and suffering

In his homily on the Gospel recounting the death of Lazarus, still alternating between English and Spanish, Sweeney recalled the lyrics of a well-known Spanish hymn: “God is here, as surely as the air I breathe, as surely as the morning sun rises, so surely that when I speak to him, he can hear me.”

“We believe this: Jesus our God is here, in the home of Doña Elena and the family of Father Rafael in Colombia, in the hearts of each one of us present here. Jesus speaks to us and comforts us. He comes to us, as he did to that house in Bethany, which was also in mourning,” the prelate emphasized.

The bishop of Paterson noted that “perhaps we are like Martha, angrily asking Jesus where he was, and if he had been, perhaps my brother would not have died. He doesn’t answer Martha’s question with an explanation, nor does he give us an explanation today to all our questions, but he answers us surely as he answers Martha: ‘Your brother will rise.’”

“And she tells him with pain that she knows he will rise again on the last day. And Jesus tells her, he tells Doña Elena and us, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will never die.’”

The prelate then added that “Jesus is here at this moment, walking with us, and will accompany the priests who will go with Father Rafael to his burial in his beloved Colombia.”

“The shortest line in the Gospel says: ‘Jesus wept.’ He understands our pain and suffering and invites us to walk with him and the Blessed Virgin Mary to Calvary. Only God knows Father Rafael’s journey, his daily life; only God knows how many families and individuals he accompanied, and who now weep.”

Sweeney then thanked Guarín for giving the Church “a very good priest. A round of applause for our beloved Father Rafael! To his brother, Jairo, we priests are your brothers, too.”

At the end of his homily, the bishop said: “To anyone who feels alone or anxious now, I want to say, ‘You are not alone.’ God does not leave us alone. If you are struggling with difficulties, psychological emotions, depression, you are not alone, we want to walk with you.”

“We give thanks for the priesthood of Father Rafael Ángel Ciro, and we commend him to God now,” he concluded.

Biography of Father Rafael Ángel Ciro

Rafael Ángel Ciro was born on Oct. 29, 1979, in the municipality of Alejandría in the district of Antioquia, Colombia. 

He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín, Colombia, in 2006.

He continued his theological studies at the Intercontinental University in Mexico City (2007–2009), Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut (2011–2012), and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland (2012–2013).

Before joining the Diocese of Paterson as a seminarian in January 2011, he dedicated nearly three years to missionary work in Medellín and another three years in Mexico City. He also ministered to Hispanic migrants in Alabama and New Jersey.

He was ordained a priest on March 25, 2013, at St. Philip the Apostle Parish in Clifton, New Jersey. Following his ordination, he served in the parish communities of St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Paterson, St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Passaic, St. Nicholas Parish, also in Passaic, and Sacred Heart and Holy Rosary Parish in Dover, New Jersey, before being appointed pastor of St. Stephen’s Parish in Paterson. 

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

The Ascensor da Glória funicular in Lisbon, Portugal, crashed on Sept. 3, 2025, killing 17 people and injuring at least 23. / Credit: Maragato1976 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 15:03 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday offered his “heartfelt condolences” to the families of those who were killed and injured in an accident involving the Elevador da Glória, an iconic funicular train that crashed at high speed into a building on Sept. 3.

In a Sept. 4 message signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on behalf of the pope, Leo offered prayers “for the complete recovery of the injured” and invoked “the strength of Christian hope for all those affected by this disaster,” Vatican News reported.

Pope Leo also expressed “special gratitude to those who took part in the rescue operations” and gave an apostolic blessing to all, especially to the families of the deceased.

The patriarch of Lisbon, Rui Valério, also offered his prayers following the accident. A statement posted on the patriarchate’s website said the patriarch received “with profound sorrow and sadness” the news of the accident, which left 17 dead and at least 23 injured in the Portuguese city. The crash of the funicular, a type of railway operated by cables and designed for steep slopes, occurred around 6:05 p.m. local time.

“At this difficult time Bishop Rui Valério lifts up his prayers to God for the victims and expresses his closeness to their families during this time of separation and profound grief,” read the statement in which the patriarch also wished the injured a speedy recovery.

The patriarch also expressed his gratitude and solidarity with those who mobilized to help the victims, including emergency teams, health care professionals, civil authorities, and volunteers.

The patriarchate also announced that Valério was scheduled to offer a Mass for the victims of the accident at St. Dominic Church in Rossio on Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. local time. All faithful in the Portuguese capital were invited to attend.

According to the BBC, the cause of the accident is still unknown, nor is it clear how many people were on board the funicular, a tourist attraction inaugurated in 1885 and electrified 30 years later.

A witness told Portuguese television station SIC that just before the accident, the Elevador da Glória was descending “at full speed” down a steep street before violently colliding with a building.

“It crashed with brutal force and collapsed like a cardboard box; it had no brakes,” a woman told SIC. 

Carlos Moedas, mayor of Lisbon, stated on X that the city council has declared three days of mourning for the victims of the accident and offered his “sincere condolences to all the families and friends of the victims. Lisbon is in mourning.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA. It was updated on Sept. 4, 2025, at 3:59 p.m. ET with the pope's comments.

Sister Miranda Moltedo was the principal of Carlo’s elementary school when he was a student. / Credit: EWTN News

Rome Newsroom, Sep 4, 2025 / 13:57 pm (CNA).

Before he was known as a soon-to-be-saint, Carlo Acutis was simply a boy in a school uniform, lugging his backpack through the hallways of the Tommaseo Institute in Milan. His teachers remember him as joyful, a bit of a prankster, and passionate about his Catholic faith.

“He was certainly not a perfect student,” Sister Monica Ceroni, Acutis’ middle school religion teacher, recalled. He sometimes forgot his homework or showed up late. But he had a “healthy curiosity” and “and wanted to get to the bottom of things.”

“When he became passionate about something, he didn’t give up,” she told EWTN News.

Acutis spent nearly eight years at the Tommaseo Institute, a Catholic elementary and middle school run by the Marcelline Sisters in central Milan. Located just across the street from his parish church of Santa Maria Segreta, the school became the setting for his daily routine of classes, soccer games with friends in the courtyard, and visits to the chapel to pray.  

“What is striking in his report cards … is that religion was the only subject he did well in,” Ceroni said. “He was someone who liked to be involved in the classroom conversations, especially in religion,” she added. 

“He was also a real joker,” she added, recalling some of the pranks he played with his classmates. 

The Acutis family hired a tutor named Elisa to help Carlo with his homework, and Carlo would sometimes invite Elisa her to come with him to Mass afterward. Elisa, like so many others in Carlo’s life, later said that she grew in her faith because of her relationship with Carlo. 

His teachers also noticed that Carlo gravitated toward classmates who struggled or were left out.  

Sister Miranda Moltedo, who was the principal of Carlo’s elementary school when he was a student, recalled a boy in the class whose mother had abandoned him. “Carlo had taken him under his wing, protecting him,” she said. “We knew that he was a child who needed special attention, affection, and love, and Carlo cared about him.” 

Carlo also stood up to bullies. When a classmate with mental disabilities was being teased and bullied, Carlo defended him. A teacher observed that, as a result, sometimes that classmate could be overly clingy with Carlo. When she the teacher asked Carlo about it, he replied: “He is a great friend of mine, and I want to help him.” 

“I think this ability to be inclusive as an 11- or 12-year-old boy was extraordinary. … It was a natural gift of his,” Ceroni said. 

“My strongest memory of Carlo is of a cheerful, lively boy. He was a typical boy his age, with a great zest for life and many dreams,” she said. 

After graduating from the Tommaseo Institute, Carlo entered the Jesuit-run Leo XIII Institute in Milan. There, his faith stood out even more. “Carlo used to go to the chapel in the morning before entering the classroom and during breaks and would stop to pray. Nobody else did that,” said Father Roberto Gazzaniga, the school’s chaplain.

Classmates who testified in Carlo’s cause for canonization described him as respectful but unafraid to voice his convictions — on the Eucharist, baptism, pro-life issues, and the teachings of the Church. He also helped peers with homework, especially when computers were involved.

Carlo “never concealed his choice of faith,” Gazzaniga said. “Even in conversations and discussions with his classmates, he was respectful of the positions of others but without renouncing the clear vision of the principles that inspired his Christian life.”

The chaplain described Carlo as having had a “a transparent and joyous interior life that united love for God and people in a joyful and true harmony.”

“One could point to him and say: Here is a happy and authentic young man and Christian,” he said. 

Unlike many at the private Jesuit school, Carlo paid little attention to what was trendy or popular. When his mother bought him new sneakers, he asked her to return them so they could give the money to the poor instead.

Acutis also asked a cloistered religious order to join him in praying for his high school classmates who partied in clubs and used drugs and spoke to his friends about the importance of chastity.

Carlo’s high school years were cut short when he was diagnosed with leukemia at age 15. He died in October 2006, just as his second year of studies was beginning, offering up his suffering from cancer for the pope and the good of the Catholic Church.

Sister Monica remembered vividly the last time she saw him a few weeks before he died. “We met right in front of the parish church,” she said. “We were going in and he was coming out of the church … He was happy to be back at school. He said he wanted to focus on computer science. I will always remember him this way.”

She returned to the parish for Carlo’s funeral not long after. “Carlo’s funeral ceremony was extraordinary. There were a lot of people, also poor people,” Ceroni said.

Today, both Sister Monica and Sister Miranda tell Carlo’s story to inspire their young students in the same classrooms where he once studied. “Carlo is presented as a child who was a friend of Jesus and found joy, because Christianity is joy,” Moltedo said. 

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

A late-term abortion clinic in Washington, D.C., has stopped taking appointments after a pro-life group campaigned against it. / Credit: SibRapid/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 12:44 pm (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news:

Pro-life group says late-term abortion clinic halted procedures after campaign against it

A pro-life group said a major Washington, D.C., late-term abortion clinic has ceased operations for the time being after a public campaign against it. 

The Washington Surgi-Clinic, which has been at the center of controversy for years due to allegations of illegal abortion services, has “halted appointments” after a “campaign to shut the facility down” was mounted by the group Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. 

The pro-life group said in a press release on Sept. 2 that it filed a complaint with the city board of medicine presenting “numerous complaints and lawsuits” against clinic abortionist Cesare Santangelo.

The clinic subsequently said it is “not currently taking appointments” and is hoping to resume them in “late September.” 

Santangelo, meanwhile, has not been seen at the clinic “in over three weeks,” the press release said.

Texas passes law allowing state residents to sue abortion pill manufacturers

Texas lawmakers this week passed a bill that will allow state residents to sue providers and distributors of abortion pills who circulate the deadly drugs in the state.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, who authored the measure, announced the bill’s passage on Facebook on Sept. 3, writing that the law, when signed, will ensure “that those who traffic dangerous abortion drugs into our state are held accountable.”

The measure will allow plaintiffs to collect up to $100,000 in damages from those who bring abortion pills into the state or provide them to Texas residents. Pregnant women who use the pills cannot be sued under the law.

Abortion drugs are illegal in Texas, though those seeking to abort children can acquire them through the mail. State Attorney General Ken Paxton last year filed a lawsuit against an abortionist in New York, alleging she illegally provided abortion drugs to a woman in Texas.

Leach on Sept. 3 said the state will continue to be “a national leader in the fight for life.” Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign the measure into law.

Amy Coney Barrett defends Roe v. Wade repeal in new memoir

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in a soon-to-be-published memoir has defended her decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, citing what she said was public sentiment as well as long-standing legal precedent. 

Barrett’s memoir, “Listening to the Law,” is due to be published on Sept. 9. Multiple media outlets reported on her remarks touching on Roe ahead of the book’s launch. 

“The evidence does not show that the American people have traditionally considered the right to obtain an abortion so fundamental to liberty that it ‘goes without saying’ in the Constitution,” she writes in the book. 

“In fact, the evidence cuts in the opposite direction. Abortion not only lacked long-standing protection in American law — it had long been forbidden.”

The Supreme Court’s role, the justice writes in the memoir, “is to respect the choices that the people have agreed upon, not to tell them what they should agree to.”

Pope Leo XIV meets with Israel President Isaac Herzog in a private audience at the Vatican on Sept. 4, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 4, 2025 / 12:14 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV discussed the conflict in Gaza, including a two-state solution, with Israel President Isaac Herzog in a private audience at the Vatican on Thursday morning. 

According to a Vatican statement after the meeting, the talks focused on the political and social situation in the Middle East and the need to guarantee “a future for the Palestinian people and peace and stability in the region, with the Holy See reiterating the two-state solution as the only way out of the ongoing war.”

The Israeli president also met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Vatican Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

The Sept. 4 Vatican audience was the first closed-door meeting between Leo and Herzog, 64, who has been Israel’s president since 2021.

In a post on X following the encounter, Herzog thanked Leo for a “warm welcome today at the Vatican” and said he looked forward to strengthening Israel’s cooperation with the Holy See “for a better future of justice and compassion.”

The Vatican communique on Leo’s meeting with Herzog — a longer and much more detailed statement than those usually issued after audiences with heads of state — repeated Pope Leo’s regular public pleas for a resumption of negotiations, a permanent ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages, respect for humanitarian law, and the safe entry of aid into Gaza.

The Vatican said the hope was also expressed that the “legitimate aspirations” of both Israeli and Palestinian people can be guaranteed.

“Reference was also made to the situation in the West Bank and the important question of the city of Jerusalem” and to issues in the relations between Israeli state authorities and the local Church, the statement added.

In addition to a two-state solution for Palestine, Vatican diplomacy has called for an international status for the city of Jerusalem, where the Latin patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, is the Catholic leader of not only Israel but also the Palestinian Territories of Gaza and the West Bank.

During a visit to the town of Taybeh in the West Bank in July, Pizzaballa and other Church leaders said they hold Israeli authorities responsible for “facilitating and enabling” attacks on Palestinian Christians by Israeli settlers.

Thursday’s conversation between Leo and Herzog also touched on the importance of ensuring the continued presence of Christian communities throughout the Middle East, the Vatican said.

After the talks, a statement from Herzog said the pope’s reception of Israel’s president reflected “the great significance of the relationship between the Holy See and the State of Israel, and of course with the Jewish people, and the importance of the very sensitive issues and challenges we experience today.”

There was some tension surrounding the meeting due to a Sept. 2 statement from Herzog’s office stating that the president’s one-day visit to the Vatican came at the invitation of Pope Leo. The Vatican contradicted that claim hours later with a statement that “it is the Holy See’s practice to agree to requests for an audience with the pope from heads of state and government; it is not its practice to extend invitations to them.”

Vatican-Israel relations were marked by tension toward the end of the last pontificate owing to Pope Francis’ criticism of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, which was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli citizens and others by Hamas militants.

Pope Francis called Israel’s actions in Gaza “terrorism” and on two occasions said what was happening there might qualify as genocide.

Pope Leo has taken a more restrained approach, calling for ceasefires and the release of hostages and emphasizing the need for dignified humanitarian aid and respect for law.

null / Credit: NMKStudio/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 11:32 am (CNA).

A transgender-identifying plaintiff in a major lawsuit being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court has requested that the court drop the case and reverse lower court rulings favorable to him, with opponents meanwhile urging the Supreme Court to hear the case as scheduled. 

Lindsay Hecox originally sued Idaho over its Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which was passed to block males from gaining access to women’s sporting leagues. A district court and an appeals court both blocked the law. 

The high court in July had agreed to consider Hecox’s challenge to Idaho’s ban on men in women’s sports. Two lower courts had ruled in the male athlete’s favor, with Idaho ultimately appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to settle the dispute. 

The Supreme Court at the time said it would also consider a similar case out of West Virginia. Both lawsuits have the potential to significantly affect U.S. case law regarding sports policy and accommodations for those who identify as the opposite sex. 

Yet in a Sept. 2 filing, Hecox — through his lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — said he was “voluntarily dismiss[ing]” his case, with the ACLU further urging the Supreme Court to vacate the two favorable rulings in the lower courts. 

In a declaration in the filing, Hecox said he had made the “extremely difficult decision” to “cease playing women’s sports” in any context covered by the Idaho law. He cited a desire to graduate college quickly, find employment, and move back home to be near his family. 

Hecox further cited “negative public scrutiny” and “increased intolerance” as he continued the case. He promised in the declaration that he would not sue Idaho over the law in the future and would not seek to participate in women’s sports in the state.

Hecox’s “unequivocal abandonment of [his] claims ... renders this case moot,” the filing states. 

Women’s advocates urge court not to drop the case

The decision brought rebuke from women’s advocates, who argued that the filing was a means of avoiding a potentially unfavorable Supreme Court ruling.

John Bursch, a senior attorney with the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a Sept. 4 press release that the group would “urge the Supreme Court to rule in this case” and ensure that federal law continues to “protect fair competition and equal opportunities for women and girls.”

Bursch noted that the high court has previously criticized efforts to “insulate a decision from review” by the justices. The Supreme Court has noted that such maneuvers “would permit a resumption of the challenged conduct as soon as the case is dismissed.”

Alliance Defending Freedom President Kristen Waggoner similarly criticized the filing on X, describing it on Sept. 3 as “a desperate, bad-faith move that the court should soundly reject.”  

“Let’s be clear: The ACLU picked this fight. In red states throughout America, they’ve gone on offense, filing lawsuits against commonsense laws meant to protect women’s sports,” she wrote.

“And now that the Supreme Court has taken up the case, they suddenly want to take their ball and go home?”

Waggoner said advocates would “urge the Supreme Court to thwart the ACLU’s attempt to game the system and to move forward with hearing the case.”

The West Virginia dispute, also being considered by the Supreme Court, arose after a then-11-year-old boy brought a lawsuit against the state over its Save Women’s Sports Act. 

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the law last year, claiming its enforcement would harm the boy “on the basis of sex.”

Waggoner wrote on Wednesday that “too many women and girls are losing their chance to be champions to kick this can down the road.”

“The issue of men in women’s sports is an ongoing, nationwide controversy. It deserves its day at America’s highest court,” she said.

Mass at St. Michael’s Abbey in California. / Credit: “EWTN News In Depth”/Screenshot

CNA Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 10:19 am (CNA).

A man arrested with a car full of weapons after threatening a California Catholic church told the parish he was an angel of death meant to “do the Lord’s reaping,” according to authorities. 

Police arrested Joshua Michael Richardson on Aug. 28 after he allegedly made criminal threats against St. Michael’s Abbey, located in Silverado, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles in the Santa Ana Mountains. 

Richardson, an Alabama resident, had a cache of weapons in his car, including knives, brass knuckles, and a sword, police said. He was also reportedly in possession of several gun magazines. 

On Sept. 3 the Orange County District Attorney’s office said in a press release that prior to driving from Alabama to the California abbey, Richardson sent an email “threatening to ‘do the Lord’s reaping’” at the church. 

The suspect also reportedly claimed to be the “rider of the pale horse,” an apparent reference to Revelation 6:8, which refers to the personification of death among the apocalyptic Four Horsemen.

Richardson further “claimed to be Michael the angel of death” and “explained that he chose St. Michael’s Abbey as it is one of the few churches in the nation that still practices Michaelmas,” according to the district attorney’s office. 

The prosecutor’s office said Richardson traveled to the abbey and on Aug. 26 attended Mass there. After Mass he allegedly “follow[ed] the priest into a private area of the church” and made further cryptic and threatening remarks. 

The suspect was arrested two days later and was charged with multiple crimes, including threats, felony possession of brass knuckles, and felony possession of a dagger. 

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the press release that churches “represent the most sacred places of worship and of peace.” 

“No one should have to worship in fear that a stranger would walk through the door with the intent to carry out their own day of judgment and determine who lives and who dies,” he said. 

Richardson’s Aug. 28 arrest came exactly one day after the deadly mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school that claimed the lives of two children and injured approximately 20 more children and adults.

The perpetrator of that crime, 23-year-old Robin Westman, born Robert Westman, indicated prior to the killing and his suicide that he was suffering from mental health issues, which he claimed in a manifesto had been exacerbated by marijuana and his struggles with his “gender identity.”

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump has called for the death penalty for capital crimes in the District of Columbia and Catholic groups have pushed back. / Credit: Andrea Izzotti/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 4, 2025 / 08:20 am (CNA).

President Donald Trump called on prosecutors in Washington, D.C., to seek the death penalty for any person convicted of murder in the nation’s capital — a plan that has received pushback from the advocacy group Catholic Mobilizing Network.

“Anybody murders [somebody] in the capital — capital punishment,” Trump told reporters last week.

“If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we’re going to be seeking the death penalty and it’s a very strong preventative and everybody that’s heard it agrees with it,” Trump added. “I don’t know if we’re ready for it in this country, but … we have no choice.”

The president did not make clear how he would impose such a requirement. A spokesperson for the White House referred CNA back to Trump’s comments when asked whether a specific policy or plan is in the works.

Last month, Trump initiated a federal takeover of Washington, D.C., police and deployed the National Guard to assist the police. The District of Columbia Home Rule Act allows a president to take control of city police for 30 days without congressional approval amid emergencies.

The president cited the city’s crime rate as the emergency that warrants the temporary federal takeover.

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, president of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, told CNA that like other American cities, Washington, D.C., “has challenges with crime and violence that should not be ignored.”

“But to suggest that the response to homicide in the District of Columbia should be capital punishment is at best a terribly misguided approach,” she said. “Perpetuating more violence in response to harm does not promise safety or an effective solution to crime.”

The Catholic Mobilizing Network works closely with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on efforts to oppose the death penalty and uphold the human dignity of people who are incarcerated.

“Capital punishment defiles the sacred dignity of life and deserves no place in our nation’s capital, our country, or any society,” Murphy added. “Simply put, the death penalty is a failed system beyond repair. Instead of providing real opportunities for healing and closure, capital punishment systematically perpetuates a cycle of violence.”

Murphy argued that enforcing the death penalty is more costly than other prison sentences, does not deter crime, and risks ending the life of people who are wrongly accused.

“The people of Washington, D.C., deserve real safety, true accountability, and approaches to crime and violence that are rooted in the preservation of life,” she said.

The death penalty is currently legal in 27 states but has been abolished in 23.

Kendrick Castillo, the lone fatality at the STEM school shooting in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, on May 7, 2019. / Credit: Photo courtesy of John and Maria Castillo

Denver, Colo., Sep 4, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Kendrick Castillo was 18 years old when he tragically died in the STEM school shooting in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, on May 7, 2019. He died, witnesses said, after he jumped up in the line of fire and ran to stop one of the shooters with a couple other students. He was the lone fatality. Now, this young man could become a saint in the Catholic Church.

The Diocese of Colorado Springs — the diocese to which the city of Highlands Ranch belongs — announced that a petition to open his cause for canonization has been received. 

“I am very grateful for the time and effort that Father Gregory Bierbaum and Father Patrick DiLoreto of St. Mark Parish in Highlands Ranch have spent gathering evidence and conducting interviews to prepare for a petition to open the cause for canonization of Kendrick Castillo. Although I have just begun to review the information submitted, it seems clear that Kendrick was an exceptional young man,” Bishop James Golka of the Diocese of Colorado Springs said in a statement.

He added: “As we study and discern how to approach the massive undertaking of promoting a canonization cause, I ask all the faithful to keep Kendrick’s family in their prayers. I also encourage everyone to privately invoke Kendrick’s intercession, praying especially for the youth in our diocese, that they emulate his example of fortitude and generosity.”

While Castillo had many connections to the Archdiocese of Denver — attending Notre Dame School in Denver, serving as a Squire of the Knights of Columbus in a Denver council, and having his funeral at St. Mary Parish in Littleton — the Church looks to where the individual’s life ended to determine which diocese has the right to petition for canonization. 

Therefore, since Castillo died in Highlands Ranch, which belongs to the Diocese of Colorado Springs, it is that diocese’s responsibility to conduct the investigation. Golka and the diocese will now review and examine the evidence collected and, if approved, the petition will be sent to Rome for further consideration.

DiLoreto, the parochial vicar at St. Mark Parish in Highlands Ranch, is one of the individuals involved in gathering evidence for Castillo’s cause of canonization. He and the parish’s pastor, Bierbaum, both experienced Castillo’s story coming up in prayer for months, DiLoreto told CNA in an interview.

“After learning that the issue had been on both of our hearts, we felt this was a prompting by the Holy Spirit to investigate further,” he said. “After interviewing his parents and reviewing the manner in which he died we believed there was reason to petition the diocese to open a cause for him.”

DiLoreto explained that the priests believe that Castillo qualifies for the category of “Offering of Life.” In a 2017 motu proprio, Pope Francis declared a new category of Christian life suitable for consideration of beatification called “offering of life” — in which a person has died prematurely through an offering of their life for love of God and neighbor. 

Though similar to martyrdom, this definition fits those servants of God who have in some way given up their life prematurely for charity, though the circumstances may fall outside the strict definition of martyrdom, which requires the presence of a persecutor.

“He [Castillo] courageously threw himself at one of the school shooters without hesitation allowing other students to follow and subdue the gunman. This saved the lives of his fellow classmates when in any other circumstance, there would surely have been more deaths on that day,” DiLoreto expressed. 

When discussing Castillo’s faith, DiLoreto called him “a pious young man who cared deeply for his faith and desired to be a witness of the faith for others, especially those who had never encountered Our Lord.”

“We have seen this through the devotionals which he had,” he continued. “For example, he always carried his rosary with him — seeing how well-worn the rosaries were, it can also be inferred that he used them frequently. He had one of his rosaries on him when he was murdered, which has since been gifted to a classmate who was in the room.”

Actively served in his parish

DiLoreto also shared that Castillo served at Mass and at funerals, actively volunteered at his parish, and attended the funerals of individuals he didn’t even know just to pray for the deceased and his or her family.

“As the country faces more and more persecution of Christians especially in these horrific school shootings, such as the one last week in Minnesota, we can look at the heroic examples such as Kendrick and the children who protected others for inspiration,” DiLoreto said.

“The elderly can look to such young examples as hope for the future generations where there may be skepticism over the future of the Church. Young people can look to such examples and be inspired that they too can live a life of virtue and that they can become saints,” he added. “It is not something that is out of reach for them if they are willing to build up virtue through acts of charity and the grace of the sacraments.” 

The canonization process is a lengthy one with many steps. A large part of the process is determining if the individual has miracles attributed to his or her intercession. The Church requires one verified miracle for beatification, after which the individual is referred to as a “blessed.” After this, another verified miracle is needed for canonization, at which point the person becomes a “saint.”