Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish

The Council of Nicaea in 325 as depicted in a fresco in Salone Sistino at the Vatican. / Credit: Giovanni Guerra (1544-1618), Cesare Nebbia (1534-1614) e aiuti, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 5, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

In the summer of A.D. 325, more than 300 bishops gathered in Nicaea — located in modern-day northern Turkey — to promulgate a common Christian creed, settle Christological disputes that arose from the Arian heresy, and promote unity in the Church.

The first ecumenical council, known as the Council of Nicaea, is still accepted as authoritative by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and many Protestant denominations. The common beliefs still offer a strong element of unity in an otherwise fractured Christianity 1,700 years later.

During the council, the bishops established the initial formulation of the Nicene Creed, which is the profession of faith still recited at the Catholic Mass, Orthodox liturgies, and some Protestant services. It also rejected heretical Arian claims that Christ was a created being who lacked an eternal divine nature and rather confirmed that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father.

The council was called by Emperor Constantine — a convert to Christianity — less than 15 years after the empire halted the persecution of Christians and granted them the freedom to worship. It came just 20 years after the reign of Emperor Diocletian, who brutally persecuted Christians for their rejection of paganism.

“That council represents a fundamental stage in the development of the creed shared by all the Churches and ecclesial communities,” Pope Leo XIV said two weeks ago, acknowledging the 1,700th anniversary.

“While we are on the path towards the reestablishment of full communion among all Christians, we recognize that this unity can only be unity in faith,” the pontiff said.

The Arian heresy

The primary purpose of the council was to settle a major question about Christ’s divine nature and address Arianism, which was a heresy promoted by the priest Arius asserting that Jesus Christ was a created being and not eternal.

“Arius began to preach something that was scandalous to many Christian believers and [which] seemed incompatible to the Christian faith as witnessed to in Scripture and transmitted through the tradition of the Church,” Dominican Father Dominic Legge, the director of the Thomistic Institute and professor of theology, told CNA.

Arius wrote in “Thalia” that he believed the Father “made the Son” and “produced him as a son for himself by begetting him.” He wrote that “the Son was not always [in existence], for he was not [in existence] before his generation.” He asserted that Christ was not eternal but “came into existence by the Father’s will.” Arius contested that Christ “is not true God” but was rather “made God by participation.”

Legge said that Arius understood that “there’s an infinite gap between God and creatures,” but where he was mistaken was that “he thought that the Son was on the ‘creature’ side of that gap” and “not equal in divinity to God.”

“Therefore, he considered him to be the highest creature,” Legge added. “The first creature, but nonetheless a creature.”

Legge said that at Nicaea there was “a consensus of bishops with very different approaches to the mystery of God and they could see that Arius had to be wrong and so they condemned him and they affirmed that the Son is ‘God from God, true God from true God.’”

The language adopted at Nicaea expressly contradicted Arius, affirming Christ is “true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father.” It condemned Arius’ view as heresy. The vote was nearly unanimous with more than 300 bishops voting in favor of this text and only two siding with Arius.

St. Athanasius, one of the most outspoken opponents of Arianism at the council and in its aftermath, wrote in his First Discourse Against the Arians in the mid-fourth century that “the Scriptures declare the Son’s eternity.”

Athanasius notes, for example, the Gospel of St. John states that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He also cites Chapter 8 of the same Gospel in which Christ declares “before Abraham was, I am,” invoking the divine name used by God to indicate his eternity when appearing to Moses as the burning bush.

“The Lord himself says, ‘I am the Truth,’ not ‘I became the Truth,’ but always, ‘I am — I am the Shepherd — I am the Light‘ — and again, ‘Call me not, Lord and Master? And you call me well, for so I am,‘” Athanasius wrote. “Who, hearing such language from God, and the Wisdom, and Word of the Father, speaking of himself, will any longer hesitate about the truth, and not immediately believe that in the phrase ‘I am,‘ is signified that the Son is eternal and without beginning?”

Legge noted that Athanasius also warned that Arius’ position “threatened the central truth of Christianity that God became man for our salvation.”

Unifying the Church in the fourth century

Prior to the Council of Nicaea, bishops in the Church held many synods and councils to settle disputes that arose within Christianity.

This includes the Council of Jerusalem, which was an apostolic council detailed in Acts 15, and many local councils that did not represent the entire Church. Regional councils “have a kind of binding authority — but they’re not global,” according to Thomas Clemmons, a professor of Church history at The Catholic University of America.

When the Roman Empire halted its Christian persecution and Emperor Constantine converted to the faith, this allowed “the opportunity to have a more broad, ecumenical council,” Clemmons told CNA. Constantine embraced Christianity more than a decade before the council, though he was not actually baptized until moments before his death in A.D. 337.

Constantine saw a need for “a certain sense of unity,” he said, at a time with theological disputes, debates about the date of Easter, conflicts about episcopal jurisdictions, and canon law questions.

“His role was to unify and to have [those] other issues worked out,” Clemmons said.

The pursuit of unity helped produce the Nicene Creed, which Clemmons said “helps to clarify what more familiar scriptural language doesn’t.”

Neither the council nor the creed was universally adopted immediately. Clemmons noted that it was more quickly adopted in the East but took longer in the West. There were several attempts to overturn the council, but Clemmons said “it’s later tradition that will affirm it.”

“I don’t know if the significance of it was understood [at the time],” he said.

The dispute between Arians and defenders of Nicaea were tense for the next half century, with some emperors backing the creed and others backing Arianism. Ultimately, Clemmons said, the creed “convinces people over many decades but without the imperial enforcement you would expect.”

It was not until 380 when Emperor Theodosius declared that Nicene Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire. One year later, at the First Council of Constantinople, the Church reaffirmed the Council of Nicaea and updated the Nicene Creed by adding text about the Holy Spirit and the Church.

Common misconceptions

There are some prominent misconceptions about the Council of Nicaea that are prevalent in modern society.

Clemmons said the assertion that the Council of Nicaea established the biblical canon “is probably the most obvious” misconception. This subject was not debated at Nicaea and the council did not promulgate any teachings on this matter.

Another misconception, he noted, is the notion that the council established the Church and the papacy. Episcopal offices, including that of the pope (the bishop of Rome), were already in place and operating long before Nicaea, although the council did resolve some jurisdictional disputes.

Other misconceptions, according to Clemmons, is an asserted “novelty” of the process and the teachings. He noted that bishops often gathered in local councils and that the teachings defined at Nicaea were simply “the confirmation of the faith of the early Church.”

Chapel built on the remains of the old church where, in 1649, the apparition of the Child Jesus took place in a consecrated host in Eten, Peru. Currently, it is not under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Chiclayo but is administered by the so-called Multisectoral Committee of Eten City. / Credit: Diego López Marina/EWTN News

Lima Newsroom, Jun 5, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

As bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, Pope Leo XIV sought to build a basilica at the site of a Eucharistic miracle, currently a chapel. However, that goal has been impeded by a dispute over who owns the land and marred by the fact that non-Catholic liturgies have been held there.

The Peruvian government recently declared the site to be “of national Interest,” introducing another factor into the matter.

Jesús León Ángeles, coordinator of the group 1649 Eucharistic Miracle in Peru, explained the situation to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

“In 2021, Pope Leo XIV — then bishop of Chiclayo — began a crusade for the construction of the Eucharistic Shrine of Peru on an 11-hectare [27-acre] plot of land he obtained in the Ciudad Eten district [of the Lambayeque region of Chiclayo province], where the country’s only Eucharistic miracle occurred in 1649,” León said.

León, who worked with then-Bishop Robert Prevost on the project, said that “Pope Leo XIV’s heart is full of love for our country,” which is why he dedicated part of his pastoral mission to promote the development of the shrine.

However, she explained that there are multiple obstacles to the construction of the Eten shrine. Just as the story of the Eten miracle “traces back to a sacrilege in Quito,” she said, today it also “has sacrilege and the desecration of the sacred place as stumbling blocks.”

The miracle of 1649: When the Divine Child appeared in the host

On Jan. 20, 1649, ciboria and consecrated hosts were stolen from the St. Clare Convent in Quito. When the sad news reached northern Peru, Masses of reparation were offered. Then on June 2, 1649, the eve of Corpus Christi, residents of Ciudad Eten claimed to see the Divine Child Jesus in a consecrated host. 

A month later, on the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, four Franciscan priests claimed to have witnessed the same apparition. Later, the image of the Child on the host disappeared, and in its place were three hearts, a symbol of the Holy Trinity.

“In 1649, people wept, the bells rang, and that grief spread throughout Peru. We are in the northern region, and the Franciscan priests were here at that time,” León explained.

This event, which is recorded in the Vatican Library in Rome, in the General Archive of the Indies in Seville, Spain, and in the library of St. Francis Convent Convent in Lima, was also celebrated by Blessed Carlo Acutis, who included it in his famous compilation of Eucharistic miracles.

In 2019, Prevost, as bishop of Chiclayo, initiated a process with the Vatican for the recognition of the Eucharistic miracle. The prelate told ACI Prensa that the miracle is well documented by “the history, the data, the continuous devotion over these 370 years” in the city of Eten and that in that sense “the miracle is approved.”

Multisectoral Committee opposes Church authority

One of the main obstacles to the construction of the long-awaited Eten shrine has been the opposition of the so-called “Multisectoral Committee of Eten City,” a group of residents who claim to have owned the land for more than 50 years. “Multisectoral” means “representing a broad section of society.” 

“Unfortunately — and I say this with shame — there is a group of fellow countrymen, my fellow countrymen from here in Eten, called the Multisectoral Committee, who have taken over the chapel and are bringing in false priests,” lamented Christian Pulcan, a member of the Catholic group 1649 Eucharistic Miracle in Peru.

Italo Chafloc, president of the committee, defended their position: “We just want them to respect our ownership of the land we have occupied for more than 50 years,” he said. “We have never closed the gates; we have always been open to dialogue.”

Chafloc further indicated that “there is a legal issue that has been in process for some time.” However, he maintained that “the role of the justice system takes a long time and is a process that is dragging on.”

However, the problems go beyond a legal dispute between the diocese and the committee.

Non-Catholic ceremonies and fake priests

In July 2018, Bishop Prevost was prevented from entering the chapel after learning that a supposed Mass was being celebrated without permission. Police intervened and found four men dressed as priests who later identified themselves as Anglicans. However, upon consulting with the official Anglican Church, that institution denied that they were members.

“I am a servant appointed by Pope Francis, the bishop of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Chiclayo. I came to this chapel and they closed the gates on me,” Prevost declared at the time, making a statement to the authorities.

According to Pulcan, Prevost was celebrating Mass at the St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Eten. “After Mass, he was informed that there was another liturgical celebration taking place here in this chapel. The [future] pope was celebrating alongside the parish priest of Eten, and therefore, there could not be another simultaneous celebration without his authorization,” he explained.

Upon learning of this, the then-bishop of Chiclayo went to the Eten chapel.

“Unfortunately, the group closed the iron gates and did not allow them to enter,” Pulcan added.

Similar situations have also taken place recently, including some witnessed by the team from the Spanish-language edition of EWTN News when they visited the site. On May 11, a man named Fernando Hoyos Ortega presided over a ceremony in which he distributed Communion without being a priest. He claimed to be an Episcopalian and said he had been invited by the Multisectoral Committee.

“Those who invited me to celebrate Mass were the people of Eten, not the diocese. That’s why you don’t need a special permit for that,” Hoyos stated.

In 2019, the diocese had specifically addressed Hoyos’ situation with a statement signed by then-Bishop Prevost, saying: “Fernando Hoyos is not a priest, nor does he have any type of authorization from the Diocese of Chiclayo to celebrate any liturgical act.”

Despite that statement, the president of the Multisectoral Committee recently stated that he was unaware that Hoyos was not Catholic: “Of course, now that you’ve just... let’s say, practically clarified it for me, well, yes,” Chafló said when asked by EWTN News.

According to Pulcan, another man named Héctor Urteaga has also gone to the chapel to celebrate non-Catholic ceremonies, supposedly as a bishop. “David Peña also came, who claimed to be a bishop. And currently, Mr. Fernando Hoyos, president of the Chiclayo Autism Association, is coming,” he added.

“It’s important for people to know all of this, because many are unaware of it. Valid liturgical celebrations in Eten take place at St. Mary Magdalene Parish. All celebrations must take place there,” the layman noted.

Pope Leo XIV’s objective: A basilica and a hospital

Despite the obstacles, in 2022 the Diocese of Chiclayo succeeded in obtaining a land lease from the regional government for use of an 11-hectare plot of land that includes the site of the miracle. Prevost’s original plan included a basilica, a pilgrim guesthouse, a hospital, and an artisan park for crafts, food, and performances. 

However, the project’s progress has been curtailed by legal disputes. The diocese’s lawyer, Ulises Damián, explained that there are currently two legal proceedings to determine ownership of the land.

The occupants of the site claim continuous possession for more than a decade, while the Church maintains that it is a cultural heritage site, meaning the state can only grant temporary use, not ownership.

“Legally, over time, they have attempted to access the property... however, that area has been declared a cultural heritage site,” Damián said. “When the Ministry of Culture prepared a report, it was determined that there are not just old but pre-Hispanic vestiges.”

For this reason, according to the lawyer, usage rights of the land are claimed not only by the diocese but also the Lambayeque regional government itself, the current legal owner of the property.

Damián also referred to the Multisectoral Committee that currently occupies the site, indicating that, although it has been formalized as an organization, it does not have the authority to administer churches or religious assets.

“Initially, they helped the priest during the feast of the Child of the Miracle, but over time, this became distorted. At one point, they even brought in people outside the Catholic Church who pretended to be priests,” he lamented.

Despite the conflict, the lawyer reiterated the diocese’s willingness to engage in dialogue with the occupiers. However, he insisted that communion with the Church requires respect for its authority. “The Church does not impose; the Church is a mother and teacher. But whoever wants to be within it must respect its hierarchy and doctrine,” he emphasized.

Both national and pending Vatican recognition

On May 17, the Peruvian government declared Ciudad Eten a “Eucharistic City of National Interest” and announced on May 21 that it would be part of the country’s “Paths of Pope Leo XIV” tourism route. Nonetheless, while the legal status of the land remains unresolved and the sacrileges continue, construction of the basilica shrine cannot move forward.

When he was prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost sought Vatican recognition for the Eucharistic miracle. In 2019, he presented Pope Francis with a document detailing the history of the devotion, which compiles 20,000 testimonies of faith. Since then, the Holy See has retained the documentation.

Today, with Prevost having become Pope Leo XIV, official recognition of the miracle is in his hands.

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

Easter Vigil in Dublin, Ireland. / Credit: Archdiocese of Dublin

Dublin, Ireland, Jun 5, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Thirty-year-old Mahon McCann was baptized during the Easter Vigil Mass in his parish of Rathfarnham in Dublin this year. He was one of 70 adults baptized into the Catholic faith that evening in the Dublin Archdiocese, the largest number of adult baptisms recorded there. 

The recent upturn in the number of people being received into the Catholic faith in Ireland can be partly explained by young adults who are seeking and searching, people who are looking for a home, somewhere they can be accompanied and grow in faith, according to Patricia Carroll, director of the office for mission and ministry in the archdiocese.

“The new Irish are coming from other countries. Then the others are Irish,” Carroll told CNA. “A lot of parents here decided that they wouldn’t bring their children through the sacraments. So that generation is starting to come to the fore, seeking and searching, looking for something.”

Carroll highlighted one development she considers integral and essential. “In our diocese, our youth and pastoral teams have focused a lot on training catechists. That means places are growing where you can come to get your catechesis.” 

In Dublin in May, 52 laypeople received certificates as catechists. The archdiocese offers a dedicated course in catechetics for those who feel called to the ministry of catechist, including people already doing some parish catechesis and members of parish sacramental teams.

Auxiliary Bishop Donal Roche of Dublin speaking at the Presentation of the Diocesan Certificate in Catechesis Our Lady of Victories Church in Ballymun said: “We are making great progress in the task of opening the hearts and minds of those who have come to the door of the Church to look in, not sure who or what they will encounter inside.”

Speaking at the 800th anniversary of the canonization of Laurence O’Toole in France in May, Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell directly referenced the phenomenon of faith resurgence happening in Ireland. 

”Beneath the surface in Dublin, another story emerges, albeit faintly,” the archbishop said. “Small numbers of young adults are discovering their faith and gathering to celebrate it. Dublin had the largest group ever seeking adult baptism during this Jubilee of Hope. Most of these people are young adults who have come to Ireland, and it is among the new Irish that renewal is most evident.”

McCann is one example of that. “I was raised as an atheist, not just with no religion but in opposition to religion,” he said. “In the sense that there was no God; Christianity was a lie. Catholicism was a lie. It was kind of something we would get past or get over. I never went to Mass and would have gone to a few funerals. I had no real experience with Catholicism or any institutional religion at all.”

When McCann was growing up in Dublin, the percentage of people answering “none” to the question of their religious denomination was in the single digits; now it has ballooned to about 25%.

Carroll told CNA that there is a noticeable increase among adults seeking baptism.

“Since Easter, I get two or three calls per week from young persons who want to become Catholic and wonder what they are to do,” she said. “So what we do is direct them to parishes where there are catechists so that they can accompany them.”

“That is a kind of spin-off of two years now of catechist training,” she continued. “Diocesan catechism in our RCIA [Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, now called OCIA in the U.S.] is becoming more alive and more intentional. So I think those are all factors explaining why the numbers have gone up.”

Carroll is optimistic for the future.

“I expect the numbers to continue to go up because I think in the city of Dublin itself, there are a lot of what I would call ‘seeking and searching’ young people, and they’re looking for a home, they’re looking for somewhere they can be accompanied and grow in faith. So that’s a very hopeful kind of story, really, for us, and it counteracts that story of the Church is dying. The Church is not dying. The Church is not going to go back to the way that it was. And that would be regressive anyway. There is a new Church emerging.”

Carroll outlined the typical journey these new Catholics take when it comes to joining the Church. 

“It’s a process of accompaniment,” she said. “First of all, there’s a whole period of inquiry. And that’s not about filling in a form; that’s about that spiritual search moment. Depending on the person, that can be a long, extended period, or shorter. After that, they are then into the catechumenate. They need to more intentionally be accompanied, to understand the sacramental life, the Church, and the creed. Those were two big things, and once they’ve done that, they’re ready for the Easter Vigil.”

There are many positive stories elsewhere. In the Diocese of Dromore, Tyrell Scarborough recently underwent the journey of seeking faith, culminating in his baptism.

“Many of my friends throughout my life have been Catholic, and I’ve always been curious about Catholicism. Everyone, except for myself, was Catholic, and I was like, I just felt like the odd one out every single time I would go to events.”

He told CNA: “I thought would it hurt for me to also, like, look into delving into this, this religion I’ve always felt a close association with. So I was like, right, why not at least look and see what this journey would be like, or would it be like for me to become that?”

“I was just recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. They call it the lonely disease because it is, like, not working anymore. I needed a sense of community again, and the Church has provided it for me,” he shared.

In Dublin, McCann’s faith journey continues: “Obviously, I’ve never done any of this stuff before, so I’m working off the kind of five stones or five pillars: trying to go to Mass every week, prayer, a bit of fasting, you know, reading Scripture, and also just trying to meet other people who are on a similar journey, getting a sense of community, and then, you know, giving back in any way I can.”

The J. Edgar Hoover FBI headquarters building in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 4, 2025 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

A report from the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee revealed that the 2023 anti-Catholic Richmond FBI memo involved coordination with field offices around the country and that similar disparaging language about certain Catholics was found in at least 13 separate documents.

In February 2023, the FBI retracted a memo from the Richmond, Virginia, field office that detailed an investigation into so-called “radical traditionalist” Catholics after the internal document was leaked to the public and prompted heavy pushback.

The memo called for the FBI to develop sources within parishes that offer the Latin Mass and online Catholic communities for the purpose of “threat mitigation.” Relying almost entirely on designations from the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the memo expressed concerns about a potential link between “radical-traditionalist” Catholics and racially motivated violent extremism.

Although the FBI removed the document from its systems and asserted the issue was isolated to one product from one field office, the new report found that multiple field offices were involved in producing the memo and that it was distributed to more than 1,000 FBI employees throughout the country.

The report reveals that analysts at the Richmond field office had consulted with the offices in Louisville, Kentucky; Portland, Oregon; and Milwaukee to gather information about “radical traditionalist” Catholics in preparation for the Richmond office’s report.

Conversations with the Louisville office reportedly helped Richmond analysts conclude that the beliefs of “radical-traditional Catholicism” are “comparable to Islamist theology.” Less is known about what was discussed with the Portland and Milwaukee field offices, but the report found that Richmond’s analysts had phone conversations with them about the subject.

After the Richmond field office produced the memo, the report found that it was sent to other field offices throughout the country.

The report cites an email exchange from the Richmond office to the office in Buffalo, New York, which notes that two “radical traditionalist” Catholic groups are in Buffalo’s area of responsibility.

Some FBI officials in the Milwaukee and Phoenix field offices were concerned about the memo, according to email exchanges. The report notes, however, it’s unclear whether the concerns were shared with the Richmond field office. 

One official questioned: “Is anyone really asking for a product like this?” and complained that “apparently we are at the behest of the SPLC” and another responded: “Yeah, our overreliance on the SPLC hate designations is … problematic.”

According to the report, the Richmond FBI had produced a draft of a second memo on the same subject, which was intended to be distributed to the entire FBI. This was shelved following the backlash to the initial leaked memo.

The draft contained similar assertions of a link between “radical traditionalist” Catholics and racially motivated violent extremism and called for source development within parishes that celebrate the Latin Mass and within Catholic online communities. The draft, which was being written in 2023, asserted that the threat of violence will likely increase during the election cycle.

Although the second draft expressed similar concerns, one noticeable difference is that it did not reference the SPLC.

The report also revealed an internal FBI email, which acknowledged that the phrase “radical traditionalist Catholic” appeared in 13 separate FBI documents and five attachments throughout the agency.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley is requesting that the new FBI director under President Donald Trump — Kash Patel — provide the committee with those documents and any other documents that “purport to tie religious groups to violent extremism based on SPLC and other biased sources.”

The report also chastises former FBI Director Christopher Wray, accusing him of “misleading testimony on the scope of the memo’s distribution” when he classified the memo as “a single product by a single field office.”

“I and other members had already expressed concern as to whether the memo’s production was isolated to Richmond or part of a larger problem,” Grassley wrote. “Testimony calling it the work of a single field office was misleading at best and appears to be part of a pattern of intentional deception.”

Grassley further notes that internal emails demonstrate that FBI leadership was aware that the scope of the issue extended beyond the Richmond office and accuses the agency under Wray’s leadership of “[obstructing] my investigation by not providing these answers for many months.”

He told Patel he is “determined to get to the bottom of the Richmond memo, and of the FBI’s contempt for oversight in the last administration.” 

“I look forward to continuing to work with you to restore the FBI to excellence and prove once again that justice can and must be fairly and evenly administered, blind to whether we are Democrats or Republicans, believers or nonbelievers,” Grassley added.

Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass at St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, June 1, 2025 for the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 4, 2025 / 17:06 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call Wednesday afternoon.

“The pope made an appeal for Russia to take a gesture that would favor peace, emphasizing the importance of dialogue to create positive contacts between the parties and seek solutions to the conflict,” Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni said in a statement.

Bruni told members of the press that the Holy Father appealed to the Russian leader about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and advocated for the facilitation of aid into affected areas.

The two leaders also discussed Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi’s efforts to facilitate prisoner exchanges. 

“Pope Leo made reference to Patriarch Kirill, thanking him for the congratulations received at the beginning of his pontificate, and underlined how shared Christian values can be a light that helps to seek peace, defend life, and pursue genuine religious freedom,” Bruni added. 

“Gratitude was expressed to the pontiff for his readiness to help settle the crisis, in particular the Vatican’s participation in resolving difficult humanitarian issues on a depoliticized basis,” the Kremlin said in a statement following the call, according to Reuters. 

The Kremlin’s statement further said Putin stressed his belief to the Holy Father “that the Kyiv regime is banking on escalating the conflict and is carrying out sabotage against civilian infrastructure sites on Russian territory.”

Pope Leo XIV’s first call with Putin comes just over three weeks after his first call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on May 12. At the time, Bruni confirmed the two leaders had spoken after the pope expressed concern for Ukraine during his May 11 Sunday address.

“I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people,” Pope Leo had said after singing the Regina Coeli prayer with approximately 100,000 people.

“May everything possible be done to reach an authentic, just, and lasting peace, as soon as possible,” the Holy Father continued.

At the time, Zelenskyy shared a photo on X of him purportedly having a telephone call with Pope Leo. After expressing gratitude to the Holy Father “for his support for Ukraine and all our people,” Zelenskyy said he and the pope specifically discussed the plight of thousands of children deported by Russia.

“Ukraine counts on the Vatican’s assistance in bringing them home to their families,” he added. 

Reiterating Ukraine’s commitment to work toward a “full and unconditional ceasefire” and the end of the war with Russia, Ukraine’s president said he also invited the Holy Father “to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine.” 

The final Easter message delivered by Pope Francis the day before his death included a prayer for the embattled country: “May the risen Christ grant Ukraine, devastated by war, his Easter gift of peace and encourage all parties involved to pursue efforts aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace.”

null / Credit: Orhan Cam/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 4, 2025 / 16:59 pm (CNA).

The Trump administration on Tuesday nixed a Biden-era requirement that forced emergency room doctors to perform abortions.  

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced on June 3 that it would rescind the July 2022 guidelines issued under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA).

That law, originally passed in 1986, was designed to prevent “patient dumping” by requiring Medicare-participating hospitals to provide stabilizing treatment to patients who can’t pay for treatment rather than transferring them. The Biden administration expanded the requirements in the wake of the repeal of Roe v. Wade, requiring hospitals to perform abortions as “stabilizing treatment” in emergency situations. 

The government will “continue to enforce” EMTALA “including for identified emergency medical conditions that place the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy,” CMS said this week.

In its announcement, the government noted that it “will work to rectify any perceived legal confusion and instability created by the former administration’s actions.” 

Pro-life, conscience advocates hail decision

Major pro-life voices celebrated the decision, arguing that the Biden-era guidelines promoted abortion and spread pro-abortion disinformation. 

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, called the Tuesday decision “another win for life and truth — stopping Biden’s attack on emergency care for both pregnant moms and their unborn children.” 

The Biden administration’s guidelines were the subject of a lawsuit by the Catholic Medical Association, a national network that promotes Catholic ethics in the medical industry. The group argued that the mandate unlawfully violated conscience rights. 

Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal nonprofit arguing on behalf of the Catholic Medical Association, celebrated the decision, saying that doctors can now “perform their life-giving duties without fear of government officials forcing them to end life and violate their beliefs.”

“Doctors — especially in emergency rooms — are tasked with preserving life. The Trump administration has rolled back a harmful Biden-era mandate that compelled doctors to end unborn lives, in violation of their deeply held beliefs,” stated ADF Senior Counsel Matt Bowman.

Heritage Foundation Vice President of Domestic Policy Roger Severino celebrated the move, saying that EMTALA under the Biden administration had been “inverted” to “unlawfully mandate abortion nationwide.”

“Wide majorities of Americans oppose forcing doctors and hospitals to take innocent human life and this change goes back to respecting conscience and the rule of law,” Severino said in a post on X. 

“A stain on America’s conscience is now gone, and good riddance,” he said. 

Pro-abortion advocates criticized the decision. Jamila Perritt, the president and CEO of the pro-abortion group Physicians for Reproductive Health, said the decision “sends a clear message: The lives and health of pregnant [women] are not worth protecting.” 

But Dr. Ingrid Skop, who serves as vice president and director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, called the decision “welcome news for both of my patients — a pregnant woman and her unborn child.” 

In a statement, she criticized the Biden-era guidelines, calling them a “coercive effort … to subvert existing laws to promote abortion.” 

“Although I do not perform elective abortions, I have always been able to provide quality care in obstetric emergencies, seeking to preserve the lives of both mother and child,” Skop noted.

Dannenfelser emphasized that “pregnant women are protected under pro-life laws” and warned that obfuscating this fact is dangerous for women across the nation. 

“Democrats have created confusion on this fact to justify their extremely unpopular agenda for all-trimester abortion,” she said. “In situations where every minute counts, their lies lead to delayed care and put women in needless, unacceptable danger.” 

Bishop Robert Barron spoke on political commentator Tucker Carlson's show on June 2, 2025. / Credit: CNA/EWTN News

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 4, 2025 / 16:29 pm (CNA).

Bishop Robert Barron sat down with conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson this week to talk about the Catholic faith and discuss some hot cultural topics. Carlson, an Episcopalian, began the June 2 interview by saying that his friends urged him to have Barron on his show. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever received more texts about any guest than I did about you,” Tucker told Barron. “From Catholics I know, from non-Catholics I know.” 

Barron, founder of Word on Fire Catholic ministries and bishop of the Winona-Rochester Diocese in Minnesota, and Carlson discussed a wide range of subjects, including how to find happiness, prayer, grace, persecution, technology, and the future of the Church.

Finding happiness

The interview began with a discussion about happiness. Carlson cited falling birth rates and increased suicides as evidence of a widespread lack of happiness in the culture.

“The joy of life” comes when “you forget about yourself and you lose yourself in some great value,” Barron said. 

“God is the highest good, the ‘summum bonum.’ That’s why you love the Lord your God. That’s the First Commandment. But when the culture has lost that, which ours is in danger of, you, by definition, become unhappy,” Barron said. 

In order to find happiness, people must let go of their egos and pursue “the good,” he said. “The ego is like a black hole … that will draw everything into itself, suck all of life and light and energy into itself. Nothing can escape.” 

People who feel unhappiness have “lost a sense of God” and therefore lost “the supreme good,” according to Barron. “The best people are those who breathe life into a room. And that happens because they’re not preoccupied with the ego. They’re captivated by some objective good, and they want to show it to you.”

What is true freedom?

The discussion turned to the topic of freedom. 

If we focus too much on choices in our lives, we will “get lost,” Barron said.

“I thought the whole point of the West was choices,” Carlson responded. 

“But, you have to know what your choice is for,” Barron said. “When you deify choice itself, when you say, ‘Autonomy, that’s my God.’ No, choice is for some good.”

He continued: “The idea is to order freedom. Freedom is not an end in itself. Freedom is ordered towards some good. When it’s disordered, it tends to collapse in upon itself.” 

“The whole point of America, I thought, was choice and freedom for its own sake,” Carlson responded. 

“Well, and I would argue it’s not for its own sake,” Barron said. “If that happens to us, something’s gone wrong.”

Of the founding fathers, Barron said they didn’t “have the full Catholic imagination as I would like it, but they certainly had a sense of the objective good, and that the purpose of life is to find that good and be ordered toward it.”

“An ordered freedom is what they were interested in, not freedom for its own sake.”

“Your freedom has to be disciplined and directed,” he continued.

“Our culture, it’s … banks to a river, the river has energy. It’s going somewhere. You knock down the banks. You say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be limited. Don’t set limits to my freedom.’ It just floods the fields.”

When asked by Carlson what are the banks that we’ve demolished, Barron said: “The life of the mind, the moral good, religious good, aesthetic … When that’s lost, the banks are knocked down.” 

Barron explained: “The goal for the Bible is not autonomy, it’s theonomy.” 

“God, ‘theos,’ … becomes the law of my life … When God becomes the norm of my life, I become more myself. I find who I really am. If I jettison God and I say, ‘No, I’m the leader of my own life,’ I get lost.”

“What does Jesus say? ‘The one who loses himself will find it. The one who’s trying to hang on to himself is going to lose it.’ Lose your freedom in God’s greater freedom, and you become now authentically free.”

Prayer and God’s transcendence

Barron spoke of prayer as a way to let go of ego. “Prayer is a conscious exercise in overcoming autonomy. It’s a conscious exercise to say, ‘I want to get out of my preoccupations. I’m placing myself in the presence of God.’”

Prayer is a way to “overcome” and “calm the mind,” Barron explained. He highlighted that the rosary is a “meditative prayer” that can really help the mind “open up to a deeper consciousness or a deeper awareness.” 

When distraction occurs during prayer, Barron instructed people to “acknowledge” it. “Don’t try to fight it,” he said. “Acknowledge it and then go back.”

Related to the topic of the transcendent nature of God, Barron said: “You’re not going to find him in the world … you can’t say things like, ‘Oh, there’s no evidence for God,’ as though he’s a chemical reaction.”

“God is, at the same time, as transcendent as you can imagine, not a thing in the world, and as imminent as you can imagine. He’s higher than anything I could imagine, and he’s closer to me than I am to myself. Now, figure that one out,” Barron said.

When Carlson asked if God needs our sacrifice, Barron responded firmly: “He doesn’t require it.” 

“How could the one who made the entire universe from nothing possibly need anything from it?” Barron said. “It’s just a logical contradiction.”

“He wants the openness of heart signaled by the sacrifice, because he wants us to be alive. And when we say, Lord, ‘I’m opening my heart to you. I’m ordering my life to you in this great sacrifice of praise,’ God delights because now we’re going to find the joy he wants us to have.”

God “needs nothing,” Barron said. “We eat the body and drink the blood of Jesus. We consume the sacrifice. It’s for our benefit, not for God’s.”

Christian persecution

During the interview, Barron highlighted the fact that the 20th century has been “the worst century for Christian martyrs [in] all of Christian history.”

“Now, around the world, we are by far the most persecuted religion,” he said. “It’s a crime. It’s an outrage. We talk in a demure way about religious liberty in our country, which is indeed under threat, but you want the real threat to religious liberty? It’s in different parts of the world. People are being killed for their Christian faith.”

Barron pointed to the late-19th-century Pope Leo XIII, who believed “the devil would have a unique control over the 20th century,” so he formulated “the famous St. Michael prayer … asking for the protection of Michael, the archangel.”

“It’s hard to argue” that Leo XIII’s premonition was not real, Barron explained. “If you believe in the devil, as I do, and you see what happened in the 20th century, it’s hard to imagine it wasn’t to some degree.”

Religion and violence

When asked if Christianity leads to violence, Barron said: “It’s one of the myths of enlightenment historiography that religion is the problem.”

There was a “careful study of all the great wars” conducted, Barron said. “And the conclusion was something like 8% could be traced to a religious cause.”

“There’s the totality of human dysfunction. God’s response to that is not to more violence. It’s to respond with forgiving love. That’s Christianity ... It’s not a religion of violence,” he said.

Technology and faith

In the course of the more-than-hourlong interview, Barron and Carlson discussed digital technology, social media, and artificial intelligence.

“We’re all addicted to [them],” Barron said in reference to smartphones. “Those machines were designed to be addictive.”

He highlighted a program whereby priests have given up their phones for a whole year as a part of a study. Barron said the result was that “they all feel liberated.”

“They all come back saying, ‘It was the best year of my life, and I read books again, and I talked to people. I cultivated friendship. I played games. I played sports … That’s almost an illustration of Augustine’s ‘incurvatus in se,’ that I’m ‘caved in’ over my iPhone.”

Barron mentioned another study that found a “direct correlation between screen time and depression,” which he said he finds “perfectly plausible.” 

“Look how unhealthy it’s making our young kids,” Barron said. “I think taking those things out of the hands of our kids would be a great idea, at least to some degree.”

Later in the interview, however, Barron said “technology is not bad in itself.” It becomes a problem when “you couple technology with a sheer celebration of autonomy or a bracketing of God.” 

Artificial intelligence is “frightening” Barron said. “It [has] to be grounded in a moral vision … or it will become a Frankenstein’s monster.” 

We cannot try to “become God” and “decide to dictate terms to reality. It’ll turn on us and wreck us,” Barron said.

Pope Leo XIV and the future of the Church

When asked what changes Pope Leo XIV may make as the new pontiff, Barron said “I don’t know.” But he did share that he thinks the pope has “made some interesting gestures” so far. 

Pope Leo’s use of Latin and his appearance in the mozzetta on the loggia after his election was a “gesture toward more traditional Catholics,” Barron said. 

At the end of the interview, Carlson voiced a paid advertisement of the Catholic prayer app Hallow, a sponsor of the podcast interview, offering listeners a three-month free trial with the code “TUCKER” at Hallow.com/Tucker and promoting the app’s consecration to Jesus through St. Joseph.

Pope Leo XIV addresses pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his general audience on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 4, 2025 / 15:52 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV will gather the cardinals at the Vatican on June 13 to give final approval to the canonizations of eight blesseds whose causes were promoted by Pope Francis.

This event is known as an ordinary public consistory and will be the first of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate. It should be noted that Pope Francis convened it at the end of February, when he was hospitalized at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, but no date was set.

This ceremony determines the final step of the canonization process through a vote to set the date on which the blessed will be proclaimed a saint.

On Wednesday, the Office of Liturgical Celebrations confirmed the list of blesseds.

Among them is Blessed Bartolo Longo, an Italian layman and lawyer and founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, Italy.

After abandoning spiritualism and Satanist sects, he embraced Catholicism, became a fervent catechist and a man dedicated to assisting those most in need. He is also recognized as one of the 20th century’s greatest disseminators of devotion to the rosary.

The June 13 consistory is also expected to vote on the date of canonization of the “doctor of the poor,” Venezuelan José Gregorio Hernández.

Also on the list is Peter To Rot, the first blessed from Papua New Guinea, who was killed in World War II for defending marriage.

The cardinals will also decide the date of canonization of Vincenza Maria Poloni, founder of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona, credited with the inexplicable cure of Audelia Parra, a Chilean woman.

Ignazio Choukrallah Maloyan, a bishop martyred in the Armenian genocide of 1915, will also be canonized soon.

María del Monte Carmelo Rendiles Martínez, founder of the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus, is slated to become Venezuela’s first female saint. “Mother Carmen,” as many knew her, will be remembered for her immense kindness and wise prudence.

Maria Troncatti, a professed religious of the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. This future saint was an Italian missionary who spent much of her life in Ecuador.

Finally, there is Pier Giorgio Frassati, a lay member of the Third Order of St. Dominic, whose canonization is scheduled for Aug. 3. This adventurer and mountain climber developed a profound love for Christ in the Eucharist and the Virgin Mary from a young age.

In his youth, he devoted himself entirely to serving the poor and sought to evangelize through politics, bringing his friends closer to the faith.

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

A New Jersey former parish bookkeeper has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $300,000 from two parishes, June 3, 2025. / Credit: Zack McCarthy via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

CNA Staff, Jun 4, 2025 / 13:21 pm (CNA).

A former parish employee in New Jersey has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $300,000 from two parishes several months after she was accused of the thefts. 

Former bookkeeper Melissa Rivera admitted to taking $292,728 from parishes in Washington Township and Pompton Plains, the Morris County prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.

The two parishes were Our Lady of the Mountain and Our Lady of Good Counsel, both located in Morris County. 

Rivera was charged with multiple counts of theft and forgery after being accused earlier this year of writing herself more than 100 checks from parish accounts between May 2018 and May 2024.  

The state said it would recommend probation for Rivera, 60, though she would have to serve 364 days in the Morris County Correctional Center as a condition of that deal, the prosecutor’s office said. 

Rivera will also be required to repay the parishes the money she stole. 

She will be sentenced on July 11, the prosecutor’s office said. The county’s financial crimes unit helped prosecute the case. 

Several Catholic officials have faced prosecution and jail time in recent years over thefts from their respective parishes. 

Another bookkeeper at a Florida Catholic parish was sentenced in November 2024 to more than two years of federal prison after stealing nearly $900,000 from the church at which she managed financial records. 

In July 2024, meanwhile, a priest in Missouri pleaded guilty to stealing $300,000 from a church at which he was pastor for nearly a decade.

And in May 2024 a former employee at a Tampa, Florida, Catholic church pleaded guilty to stealing more than three-quarters of a million dollars from the parish while employed there.

Pope Leo XIV gives a blessing to memebers of the National Italian American Foundation in their meeting on June 4, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Jun 4, 2025 / 11:34 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV met with the National Italian American Foundation on Wednesday and blessed their work in continuing the spiritual and cultural legacy of their ancestors.

Before holding his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Holy Father met with board members of the leading Italian American foundation and thanked them for their various initiatives in the U.S. and Italy.

“Your work to continue to educate young people regarding Italian culture and history as well as providing scholarships and other charitable assistance in both countries helps to maintain a mutually beneficial and concrete connection between the two nations,” Pope Leo said at the morning meeting.

The foundation, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary, provides $1.5 million each year in educational scholarships and heritage travel opportunities to young students.

During the brief meeting, the Holy Father said the Catholic faith is a “hallmark” of the legacy built by many people who immigrated to the U.S. from Italy.

“A hallmark of many who immigrated to the United States from Italy was their Catholic faith, with its rich traditions of popular piety and devotions that they continued to practice in their new nation,” he said. “This faith sustained them in difficult moments, even as they arrived with a sense of hope for a prosperous future in their new country.” 

Robert Allegrini, National Italian American Foundation president and CEO, told CNA on Wednesday that it was a “tremendous honor” for the organization to meet with the Church’s first U.S.-born pope.

“The warmth of His Holiness’ Italian heritage was manifested in the gracious and pious reception he accorded to each and every member of our delegation,” he shared. “The pope was very happy to hear that the president of the National Italian American Foundation was a fellow Chicagoan.” 

“What is particularly meaningful for us as Italian Americans is that we feel that we combine the best elements of both the Italian and American cultures, traditions, and values,” he said. “This makes us truly special and truly in sympathy with the pope who shares those traits with us.” 

Toward the end of the meeting, Pope Leo encouraged the delegation to also be pilgrims in the Eternal City this week, in addition to their separate Wednesday meetings with him and Italian President Sergio Matarella.

“Your visit to the Vatican occurs during the jubilee year, which is focused on hope, which ‘dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring,’” the Holy Father said, quoting Spes Non Confundit.

“In an age beset by many challenges, may your time here, in a city marked by the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul as well as many saints who strengthened the Church throughout difficult periods of history, may this renew your sense of hope and trust in the future,” he said, before imparting his apostolic blessing upon the delegation, their families, and loved ones.

According to the 2022 American Community Survey, released by the United States Census Bureau, 16 million people, accounting for 4.8% of the total U.S. population, reported having Italian ancestry.