Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish

St. James Roman Catholic Church in Reading, England, is the starting point of the English route of the Camino de Santiago. / Credit: Kevin Hellon/Shutterstock

London, England, Aug 12, 2025 / 13:52 pm (CNA).

A bishop in the United Kingdom has expressed concern about a proposal to build a huge solar farm on the English stretch of the Camino de Santiago in the south of England.

The English leg of the highly popular and historic pilgrimage runs 68 miles from the city of Reading to the port of Southampton, which falls within the Diocese of Portsmouth and has been frequented by pilgrims for more than a thousand years.

The Camino de Santiago is made up of many different ancient routes across Europe that all lead to the tomb of St. James in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.

English pilgrims would traditionally take a boat from Portsmouth and sail to Spain before continuing their pilgrimage.

In an email exchange with CNA, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth expressed his worries about the proposal.

“The proposal to build a large solar farm seems unfortunate and I can understand any villager, farmer, or lover of the South Downs feeling saddened at the loss of land and the potential blight on the landscape, even if there are several other areas of the South Downs given over to solar farms.”

The South Downs is a highly popular national park through which the historic route runs.

“Since I became bishop of Portsmouth in 2012, I have been very aware of this venerable Camino route from Reading to Southampton,” he said. “Our parish in Reading, dedicated to St. James and standing in the ruins of the pre-Reformation abbey, is the official starting point of the Camino.”

“Indeed, only last year, I went out to greet four American bishops hiking the trail and who were staying in a farmhouse near Alton, Hampshire,” he continued. “Much of the central part of the route through Hampshire is idyllic; it is very rural, and you feel far away from the hectivity of modern life. As you walk along, it is easy to feel part of a spiritual exercise that goes back to medieval times.”

Egan said he hoped the ancient route would still be marked out in some way, adding: “I wonder too if they might install paneling and other measures to hide the solar cells and safeguard the most attractive views?”

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, the proposed Stokes Lane Solar Farm will supply energy to 9,390 homes every year for 40 years.

A spokesperson for Solar2, the renewable energy company driving the proposal, said the plans were “necessary and urgent” in the context of the “the climate emergency, energy security, environmental degradation, and growing risks to U.K. food production,” the Telegraph reported.

But Professor Joseph Shaw, head of the U.K. Latin Mass Society — which organizes an annual pilgrimage to the Marian shrine of Walsingham, England — said: “Solar farms already encroach on many areas of our countryside, including areas near where I walk regularly in Oxfordshire. It is no exaggeration to say that they have the power to turn an ancient pathway to a holy place into a track through an alien industrial wasteland. I hope that planners are mindful of this site’s status as a World Heritage Site and preserve it for future generations.”

The U.K. stretch of the Camino became the first pilgrimage route to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1993.

The area also boasts other gems of historic interest including the Grade-I-listed, 12th-century building of All Saints Church, located about a half a mile away. George Austen, brother to the author Jane Austen, is also buried there, adding further historic weight. 

The proposal has proved so controversial that the consultation period hosted by the local council has been extended by 20 days and will now close on Aug. 25.

The Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince condemned the kidnapping of nine people from an orphanage on the outskirts of the capital on Sunday, Aug. 3. / Credit: Creative Photo Corner/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 12, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince denounced the “collapse of humanity” in Haitian society, “where the unthinkable has become commonplace,” in response to the kidnapping of nine people from an orphanage on the outskirts of the capital on Aug. 3. 

In a statement, the archdiocese said it received the news of the kidnappings, which included an Irish lay missionary and a disabled 3-year-old boy, with “deep sadness and profound indignation” and expressed “its fraternal solidarity and spiritual closeness” with the orphanage, a “tireless sower of hope for the most vulnerable.”

The archdiocese also expressed its solidarity with the residents of Kenscoff, who have been affected “by the brutal violence that has taken hold in this town over the past few months.”

“Once again, crimes committed with chilling cynicism bear witness to the collapse of humanity in our society, where the unthinkable has become a daily occurrence. Crime knows no bounds. And places of care, education, refuge, and hope are now being targeted,” the Aug. 6 statement lamented.

“This kidnapping constitutes an attack on what is most noble in a society: service free of charge to others, the innocence of the defenseless child, the faith embodied in works of mercy,” the archdiocese stated, condemning this new act of barbarism, calling it “a sign, among many others, of moral collapse, state failure, and a society that is losing its sense of life and human dignity.”

If competing interests are allowed, the archdiocese noted, to make society insensitive to the suffering of the victims of the violence prevailing in Haiti, “we will become accomplices in the slow but sure destruction of this country.”

“Because silence in the face of the unacceptable is a form of renunciation of our human and Christian vocation,” the statement emphasized.

“The Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince urges all the faithful, all men and women of goodwill, to raise their voices, unite in prayer, and take concrete measures to reject this climate of dehumanization,” the statement added.

Furthermore, the archdiocese urged the civil, military, and police authorities “to assume their responsibilities to guarantee the safety of all and obtain the immediate release of the kidnapped persons,” emphasizing that “Haiti’s future cannot be built on blood, impunity, and fear.”

“The time has come together to say enough. And to act. In these dark days, may the light of the risen Christ illuminate our decisions, our words, and our actions. May Our Lady of Perpetual Help intercede for our beloved Haiti and especially for all those who are suffering,” the statement concluded.

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

The Vatican City’s Governor’s Palace (Palazzo del Governatorato in Vaticano), the building that is the seat of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State in the Vatican Gardens. / Credit: Some pictures here/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 11, 2025 / 17:20 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has approved a series of measures that benefit Vatican employees, expanding paternity leave, the rights of parents with disabled children, and granting family subsidies.

A document published Aug. 11 and signed by Maximino Caballero, prefect of the secretariat for financial affairs of the Holy See, lists the “Provisions for the Family” approved by the Holy Father following an audience on July 28.

These resolutions were previously unanimously accepted by the council of the Labor Office of the Holy See (ULSA, by its Italian acronym), a body composed of representatives from various entities of the Holy See and the Vatican Governorate as well as their respective employees.

Regarding paternity leave, the pontiff established that a father is entitled to five days of 100% paid leave after the birth of a child. 

The text specifies that the days off are “understood as working days and may be taken sequentially or one at a time in full days and not by hours, and not beyond 30 days from the birth of the child, under penalty of forfeiture of the right.”

In January, Pope Francis extended paternity leave from three to five days, a measure already modified in 2022, when it was increased from one to three days.

Parents of children with proven severe disabilities will be entitled to three days of paid leave per month, which may be taken in a row as long as the child is not hospitalized full time.

In addition, a monthly subsidy was introduced for families with severely disabled or incapacitated members as well as for pensioners in the same situation.

The document also redefines the concepts of disability and incapacity, specifying that the assessment will be carried out by a Vatican Medical Association, whose decision will be “without appeal.”

Finally, to facilitate assistance to family members with disabilities, it is stipulated that the time off granted for this purpose cannot be used to work another job. 

Regarding the family subsidy, Pope Leo XIV has expanded the right for adult children who are students. They may receive this aid until the age of 20 for secondary school studies and until the age of 26 for university studies or equivalent studies recognized by the Holy See. 

The provisions, approved by the pope, will go into effect upon their official publication in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis (Acts of the Apostolic See).

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

Cardinal Vincent Nichols (pictured celebrating a Mass in 2021) condemned in an Aug. 8, 2025, statement Israel’s plans to take over Gaza City. / Credit: Mazur/cbcew.org.uk

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 11, 2025 / 16:32 pm (CNA).

Archbishop of Westminster in England and Wales Cardinal Vincent Nichols has issued a statement condemning Israel’s plans to take over Gaza City.

The statement came after Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan on Aug. 8 to take control of Gaza City and expand military operations.

Israel’s five-step plan includes disarming Hamas, releasing all remaining living and deceased hostages, demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, establishing temporary Israeli control over the enclave, and eventually replacing Hamas with a friendly Arab civil administration.

“Today, and in these days, I weep for the people of Gaza as they face not just a continuation of their immense suffering but an escalation in their hardship and desperation,” Nichols said in the Aug. 8 statement.

“To increase the destruction of Gaza City and then the rest of its territory, in order to defeat a terrorist organization and movement, is a development that is rightly being condemned around the world,” he added.

“There must be a better way,” said Nichols, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, calling for an alternative strategy “that does not heap yet further suffering and misery on so many people who are not combatants but defenseless in face of the perpetrators of violence in their midst.”

“Already too much innocent blood has been shed; too many lives destroyed; too much hunger and starvation,” he continued. “This war must be ended not increased.”

Nichols expressed solidarity with the faithful in Gaza as well as the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, whose “consistent appeals for peace,” aid delivery, and support of Holy Family Parish in Gaza City, he said, should “evoke from us all our practical help and our prayers.”

The archbishop of Westminster further invoked the prayers of Our Lady of Gaza and St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, a Jewish convert to the Catholic faith whose feast day was Aug. 9.

The latest developments come just under a month after an Israeli strike “mistakenly” hit Gaza’s only Catholic Church in Gaza City, resulting in three deaths and 15 injuries.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), called for peace and an “immediate ceasefire” following the strike, stating: “With the Holy Father, the Catholic bishops of the United States are deeply saddened to learn about the deaths and injuries at Holy Family Church in Gaza caused by a military strike.”

USCCB Chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace, Bishop Abdallah Elias Zaidan, has also called for an end to the war and the “immediate expansion of humanitarian assistance through all channels in Gaza.”

On Monday, five Al Jazeera journalists and a freelance journalist were targeted and killed by Israel Defense Forces in a press tent outside Al Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, according to Reuters. Israel claimed one of the journalists, Anas al-Sharif, was a Hamas operative, though Al Jazeera denied this. The airstrike was widely condemned by journalists, human rights groups, and the U.N.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Syracuse, New York. / Credit: Mahmoud Masad/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 11, 2025 / 16:02 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Syracuse, New York, announced on Aug. 9 that Bishop Douglas J. Lucia has taken on the additional job of parish priest at three churches in Baldwinsville, New York. 

The diocese announced a number of changes to pastoral assignments that went into effect on Aug. 1, including Lucia serving as pastor at St. Augustine Church, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, and St. Mary of the Assumption Church. The three churches are part of the same parish and share various initiatives and resources.

“Certainly, a crucial component in our parishes is the priest. Without the priest, there is no Mass; and without the Mass there is no Eucharist, no food for the journey,” Lucia wrote in a recent letter to the churches’ parishioners.

After announcing that the previous pastor, Father Joe O’Connor, received seminary work as a new assignment, Lucia wrote to parishioners: “I know you have been wondering what is next for the Baldwinsville parishes.”

“I am able to share the news that I will be your new pastor,” Lucia said. “Although I was called to be the bishop of the Diocese of Syracuse six years ago, it has always been with the hope of continuing to be a parish priest and I guess God has taken me at my word.”

While Lucia is taking over as priest at the parishes, Father Benjamin Schrantz will remain the parochial vicar of the churches, and retired priest Father Thomas Ryan will continue to offer sacramental assistance.

The diocese did not specify exactly why Lucia will be taking the place as pastor but shared that “the needs of the Baldwinsville area must be fully developed while considering both pastoral and financial resources.”

With help from parish deacons, parish trustees, and the presidents of the pastoral councils, Lucia planned and announced a new Mass schedule. “I am committed to providing the best pastoral care for the Baldwinsville area within the means we possess.”

The schedule that will take effect at the end of August “will allow that no more than two priests will be needed for the celebration of Sunday Mass … each weekend.” Lucia added: “I am also aware that I must take into account the age, health, spiritual, and emotional well-being of our priests.”

“An important step in the pastoral planning for the diocese must allow for balanced lifestyles for clergy and parish staffs as well as the ability to serve Christ’s faithful both in our urban and rural settings,” Lucia wrote.

While it is not common for a bishop to take the role of parish priest to multiple churches, Lucia is not new to taking on various roles. Since he was ordained a priest in 1989, Lucia has simultaneously served in pastoral and administrative roles across northern New York and Canada.

In 2006, the bishop was both chancellor and episcopal vicar for the Diocese of Ogdensburg, New York. He also previously served as pastor to multiple churches at once in the New York area while still continuing his other diocesan responsibilities.

Lucia will continue to serve the nearly 200,000 Catholics who reside in the seven counties of the diocese as bishop while also working as a pastor.

Miguel Uribe Turbay. / Credit: LuigiVenegas, Original uploader (2019), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 11, 2025 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

Colombian Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay died Monday morning, Aug. 11, just over two months after being shot by a hitman, his wife, María Claudia Tarazona, confirmed. The politician was hospitalized at the Santa Fe Foundation Hospital in Bogotá.

“You will always be the love of my life. Thank you for a life full of love, thank you for being a father to the girls, the best father to Alejandro. I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you,” Tarazona wrote on Instagram early this morning.

Born on Jan. 28, 1986, in Bogotá, Colombia, Uribe Turbay was the son of businessman Miguel Uribe and journalist Diana Turbay, who was murdered in 1991 after being kidnapped by the order of Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medellín Cartel. 

Uribe Turbay, whose family background is Maronite Catholic, held various public offices until he was elected to the country’s Senate in 2022 as a candidate for the Democratic Center political party — led by former President Álvaro Uribe — and had strong prospects ahead of the 2026 presidential elections.

On June 7, as part of his campaign to get on the ballot, he participated in a political event in Fontibón on the west side of the Bogotá capital district where he was the victim of the attack that claimed his life early this morning after nearly two months in critical condition.

In addition to his wife, Uribe Turbay is survived by his young son, Alejandro, and three daughters from his wife’s previous relationship.

Cardinal Rueda: It’s a time to unite as a country

The archbishop of Bogotá and primate of Colombia, Cardinal Luis José Rueda Aparicio, urged the country to hold on to hope despite the pain caused by Uribe Turbay’s death. “Is not this the time to call on all Colombians to reject all forms of violence and walk together in hope. This is not a time for us to be divided, it is a time to unite,” he said.

In a video released by the Archdiocese of Bogotá, the cardinal also expressed his solidarity with the Uribe Turbay family and assured them that the Church is praying for the senator’s eternal rest.

“I also invite all families in Colombia to pray. Let us pray for Colombia. Let us pray for the children. Let us pray for the youth. Let us pray for peace. And let us pray to God to give us a renewed heart and a new conscience so that we may be able to work for the unity of Colombia, reject all forms of violence, and be able to meet and dialogue together in the midst of conflict,” he said.

Father Ramón Zambrano, founder of the television channel Cristovisión, also expressed his condolences. “May Miguel Uribe Turbay rest in peace. May he enjoy eternal life that the Lord grants to the just. May God bless and strengthen his wife and his entire family,” he wrote on X.

“May the blood of the martyrs be a seed of hope so that we may commit ourselves to forging a country where we don’t turn our backs on God,” he added.

Colombia mourns

Other political leaders also expressed their condolences following the death of the Colombian senator. Former President Álvaro Uribe posted on X: “Evil destroys everything; they have killed hope. May Miguel’s struggle be a light that illuminates the right path for Colombia.”

Former Colombian President Iván Duque said that “terrorism robbed us of a promising figure for Colombia and a leader of integrity and transparency… Colombia mourns but will not surrender to the criminals who snuffed out the life of an admirable young man.”

Carlos Galán, mayor of Bogotá and son of Luis Carlos Galán — a presidential candidate assassinated on the orders of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in 1989 — recognized Uribe Turbay as “a great human being, an honest and courageous leader, a politician with a true vocation for service.”

“His assassination should be a turning point for Colombia. We cannot accept violence in our country,” he added, calling for this crime to not go unpunished.

Colombian authorities have arrested members of the crime gang accused of organizing the assasination, which was carried out by a 15-year-old boy. 

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

Bishop Yaacoub Camil Afram Antoine presides over a Mass celebrating the launch of the Association of Hebrew Catholics on Aug. 8, 2025, at St. Thomas Syriac Catholic Church in Jerusalem. / Credit: Yarden Zelivansky

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 11, 2025 / 12:19 pm (CNA).

A group dedicated to providing a welcoming space for Jewish converts to Catholicism has launched in Israel.

The Association of Hebrew Catholics celebrated its official launch with a Mass on Aug. 8, the eve of the feast of its patron, St. Edith Stein, who was a Jewish convert to Catholicism.

The Syriac Catholic Exarch of Jerusalem, Bishop Yacoub Ephrem Semaan, acted as host for the event and celebrated the Mass, which took place at St. Thomas Syriac Catholic Church in Jerusalem. 

Yarden Zelivansky, a Jewish convert to Catholicism and member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who worked to bring the Association of Hebrew Catholics to Israel, told CNA that about 30 people attended the event.

Zelivansky said he hopes that as the group grows, its major events planned throughout the year will attract more people.

“Here in Israel, we’ve chosen as the local patron St. Angelus of Jerusalem, who was a Jewish convert to the faith and grew up in Jerusalem,” Zelivansky said, noting the Carmelite saint’s record of evangelism with the local Jewish community.

“Almost all of the Hebrew Catholic saints are Carmelites,” he added.

The Association of Hebrew Catholics was founded by Carmelite priest Father Elias Friedman, OCD, a Jewish convert to Catholicism who lived at Stella Maris Monastery on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel.

The group plans to host many events, including the celebration of St. Angelus’ feast day as well as observing some of the major Jewish holidays. “We plan to see how we can celebrate [Jewish holidays] in the light of Christ,” Zelivansky said.

“A lot of us see within the Jewish liturgy and within the Jewish holidays, since they are originally from the Old Testament, very, very strong Christological elements,” the Tel Aviv native continued. “So we plan to celebrate all these holidays in a modified way, which brings out Christ that’s already in them, as we see it.”

As a lay apostolate, the group will not set up parishes or facilitate the sacraments. The Vicariate of St. James the Just, founded similarly for Hebrew-speaking Catholics and which is part of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, is in place to do that already.

“We are trying to set up this space where we will be focusing more on Jewish culture, which may or may not be in Hebrew,” he noted. “There are a lot of people who came in recent years from the Soviet Union whose Jewish identity is very important to them, so we may end up having activities in the Russian language as well. Our focus is not linguistic, it’s cultural.”

In addition to having the support of the Syriac Patriarchate, Zelivansky met with and secured approval for the group with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, and several other heads of smaller faith communities within the Catholic Church, whom he said “have all been very excited to see where this is going.”

Since most of the group is canonically Latin, Zelivansky said he wanted to have the patriarch’s approval. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who was not himself of a Jewish background who understood this issue so well,” Zelivansky said of Pizzaballa. During their meeting, he recalled speaking with Pizzaballa about the group, theology, the current state of the Church, and Pope Leo XIV.

“It was a wonderful conversation,” he recalled. “[Pizzaballa] is a delightful man, and it really was a pleasure to see how deeply he understands this issue.”

Reception in Israel 

Reactions to the Association of Hebrew Catholics will likely be “mixed,” according to Zelivansky. “Like any other country in the region, Israel is made up of a lot of different subcultures.” 

For example, he said, while secular Jews will likely remain indifferent, the religious Jewish community might take issue with the group, not because it is a Christian community but because it is a community of Jewish converts. However, he said the goal of the association is not to evangelize but rather to reach Jews who have already converted.

Ultimately, what Zelivansky is “most excited for” is to see how Christians who have a Jewish background or Messianic Jews will react to the association. 

“I think what a lot of people don’t appreciate, Jews have historically often rejected Christianity, not just for the theology but for the culture,” he explained. “Because for Jews, their heritage and their culture are not just an ethnic thing.”

Jews have often “rejected Christianity because they were forced to assimilate or they were expected to assimilate when that happens,” he continued. “And it’s unimaginable for them to stop being Jews because it’s their inheritance from God.”

“I think being able to maintain that inheritance while being orthodoxly Catholic, once the Church really knows how to facilitate that for the people of Israel, it’s going to be a historical moment,” he stated.

Origins

“The idea [for the association] is that every culture that Catholicism, Christianity, was brought to, the faith was inculturated into whatever the culture was,” Zelivansky explained, pointing to the expressions of various rites within the Church, which may be distinguished by their liturgies and musical expression.

However, he said, “for the vast majority of Christian history, Jews who converted were simply not afforded that opportunity for different reasons.” Jewish converts to Catholicism who lived in France, Italy, or Germany “were expected to just assimilate into whatever the local culture was.” 

“Eventually, a few converts realized that there’s a need to create this space to see what it would look like if Jews could keep their Jewishness as Catholics,” Zelivansky said. “And that’s what the [association] is about, creating that space where you can bring the Jewish culture into the faith, into the Church, and see what that looks like in practice.”

He pointed out that the Vicariate of St. James the Just ministers to Hebrew speakers, regardless of whether they are Jewish. 

While the Vicariate does necessary work to ensure the sacraments are available to Hebrew speakers, the Association caters to Jewish converts to the faith, “so as to preserve Jewish identity,” Zelivansky said, noting the Association and Vicariate are “parallel and non-competitive."

The parish priest of St. Patrick in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, Canon John Murray, is in a “serious but stable” condition in hospital following the Aug. 10, 2025, assault in which his fingers were broken while defending himself. / Credit: Pacemaker

Dublin, Ireland, Aug 11, 2025 / 11:27 am (CNA).

A 77-year-old parish priest in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland, sustained head and hand injuries following a violent attack as he was getting ready to say Sunday morning Mass.

The parish priest of St. Patrick in Downpatrick, Canon John Murray, is in a “serious but stable” condition in the hospital following the Aug. 10 assault in which his fingers were broken while defending himself.

In a separate incident that police believe to be connected to the assault on Murray, a murder inquiry is underway after a man was found dead in a house in the County Down town, RTÉ News reported.

In a statement, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said inquiries are ongoing: “At this time, we suspect this may be connected to a serious assault in the St. Patrick’s Avenue area of Downpatrick on Sunday.” St. Patrick’s Avenue is where the church is located.

“Detectives from our Major Investigation Team have launched a murder investigation following the death of a man in Downpatrick,” District Commander Superintendent Norman Haslett said.

“Following a report of a deceased man at approximately 12 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 10, a 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody assisting with enquiries,” according to police.

It was reported to police at around 10:10 a.m. on Sunday that a man had walked into the church on St. Patrick’s Avenue and hit the priest in the head with a bottle before leaving.

Father Eddie McGee, spokesman for the Diocese of Down and Connor, told CNA: “The parish priest of Downpatrick, Canon John Murray, was approached earlier this morning by a gentleman asking him to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation on the way into the church, at which stage Canon John was attacked.”

“Canon Murray sustained a serious head injury and is currently in hospital receiving treatment. His situation remains serious but stable,” he said. “Obviously, our thoughts and prayers are with Canon John Murray.”

“It’s very concerning and disturbing that this attack occurred towards a priest who was vulnerable in the course of his ministry and service to the local community,” McGee told CNA.

McGee confirmed that Murray was due to retire as parish priest in the coming weeks and will continue to serve in the local family of parishes until then.

“As parish priest of Downpatrick, Canon Murray is very well known and very well liked and parishioners and others from across the community have been in contact today to assure him of their ongoing prayers and support at this time,” McGee said.

“The diocese has received the devastating and shocking news that another man in Downpatrick has been murdered in what appears to be a related incident,” McGee continued. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife and family and indeed all affected by this attack resulting in the loss of life.”

Appealing for anyone with further information to contact police, Detective Chief Inspector David McBurney said: “This was a completely shocking and brutal attack and has left the priest with a serious head injury.”

The deceased has been named locally by The Independent as Stephen Brannigan.

Cardinal Fernando Chomali, archbishop of Santiago, Chile. / Credit: Courtesy of Archdioceses of Santiago, Chile

ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 11, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

“The Christian of the 21st century will either be a martyr or will not be a Christian,” the archbishop of Santiago and primate of Chile, Cardinal Fernando Chomali, said during a seminar about the role of faith in public life. 

The cardinal made the remark during his presentation at the seminar “And in Everything Charity,” which took place on the occasion of the centenary of Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas.

The seminar’s title was inspired by a quote from St. Augustine. Organizations including the Catholic University of Chile’s law department, Community and Justice, and the ConBoca Foundation collaborated to host an event highlighting charity as the central pillar uniting social, cultural, and political efforts.

Chomali opened his presentation with a statement about the current reality: “We are glutted with everything: with words, with discourse, with so-called freedoms. But at the same time, we are full of nothing.”

Referring to the role of faith in today’s society and the need for a solid spirituality, the cardinal noted that “today we need witnesses. More than teachers, people who know Jesus, who love him, who follow him. Not with ideas, but with their lives.”

He also warned about two common temptations surrounding faith: spiritualizing everything and retreating into small circles. “The Church cannot be closed off. It’s not about doing missions from time to time but about living with a missionary attitude. What attracts people are not speeches but actions,” he observed.

Chomali affirmed that “the Christian of the 21st century will either be a martyr or will not be a Christian,” clarifying that “it’s not about seeking persecution but about living radically; obeying God before men.”

‘Evangelizing is by nature a political act’

The archbishop of Santiago elaborated on the importance of faith in social transformation, affirming that “every human project without grace ends in frustration.”

He warned that charity cannot be reduced to cordiality or philanthropy but rather “must be the soul of Christian politics” and that this requires “formation, prayer, and consistency.”

Making a distinction between politics and ideology, the cardinal asserted that “evangelizing is by nature a political act, because it seeks the common good.”

The best thing we can offer society, he maintained, is to proclaim Christ, because “from him we understand human dignity. And only from him can we live with hope.”

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

The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration from the Our Lady of Solitude Monastery in Tonopah, Arizona, accompanied by their local priest. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Mother Marie Andre Campbell

CNA Staff, Aug 11, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Aug. 11 the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Clare of Assisi, a woman born into a noble family who was moved by St. Francis’ preaching and decided to embrace a life of poverty, founding a cloistered contemplative order of religious sisters called the Poor Clares.

The order spread rapidly throughout Italy with young noblewomen selling all their possessions to take on the habit of a Poor Clare. In 1218, the order began to spread outside the Italian border. Agnes of Assisi, Clare’s sister who also became a Poor Clare soon after she did, introduced their way of life to Spain. Soon monasteries in Belgium, France, and other European countries began to open.

Branches within the order include the Colettine Poor Clares, Capuchin Poor Clares, and the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration.

The Poor Clares follow the Rule of St. Clare — which was approved by Pope Innocent IV two days before Clare’s death in 1253 — and take vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity.

Mother Marie André is a Poor Clare of Perpetual Adoration at the Our Lady of Solitude Monastery in Tonopah, Arizona. She has been a religious sister for 31 years and abbess of the monastery since 2016.

The third of four daughters, Mother Marie André grew up in a military home as her father was in the Navy. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, she wanted to enter a government service such as the CIA, Drug Enforcement Administration, or FBI. 

“I actually interviewed with all those,” she told CNA. “And every time I did, something strange would come up and it would never go through.”

While working in San Diego and feeling “a little frustrated because I didn’t know what the Lord wanted of me,” Mother Marie André went on a trip to Irondale, Alabama, to visit her best friend, who had just entered Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, the monastery Mother Angelica founded in the 1960s. (Mother Angelica later launched EWTN from the monastery in 1981.)

“I had met Mother Angelica and she had said to me, ‘We’ll take care of you.’ And I thought, well, it probably was that I would be working at the network,” Mother Marie André explained. “So, I left and when I got home just a couple weeks later, I really felt like the Lord called me to that life like a bolt out of the blue. That was March of 1994. I entered in September of 1994.”

Mother Marie André explained that she considered becoming a Dominican sister; however, the contemplative life appealed to her. Additionally, growing up in California, she was surrounded by the missions, which were founded by Franciscan priests; cities there were named after Franciscan saints; and, surprisingly, each of her sisters was born on a Franciscan feast day.

“I felt like the Lord had maybe planted the seed long before, and then it bloomed as I got older,” she said.

The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration originated in France and was founded on Dec. 8, 1854, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, by Pope Pius IX. Mother Marie Claire Bouillevaux, the order’s foundress, wanted to start an order that combined the Franciscan form of living with a special devotion to Eucharistic adoration in the spirit of thanksgiving.

In 1921, the first American foundation was established by Mother M. Agnes in the Diocese of Cleveland. From there a foundation was established in Canton, Ohio. By 1962, Mother Mary Angelica was the abbess of the new foundation in Birmingham, Alabama: Our Lady of the Angels Monastery. In 1981, Mother Angelica founded Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the first Catholic cable satellite network. Then in 1987 she founded an order of priests and brothers, known as the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word (MFVA).

To allow for the growth of both EWTN and the MFVA friars, Our Lady of the Angels Monastery transferred to a new location in Hanceville, Alabama, in late 1999. It is from Our Lady of the Angels Monastery that the Our Lady of Solitude Monastery in the Diocese of Phoenix was established in 2005.

“That is our whole life — of thanksgiving, reparative thanksgiving, where our life really cycles around Our Lord’s presence,” Mother Marie André explained.

Mother Marie André expressed that next to the Mass, adoration is “the most important aspect of our faith because we have before us Our Lord present in the holy Eucharist, body, blood, soul, and divinity.”

The monastery sits just six miles away from a major highway in Arizona. Mother Marie André shared that many times she finds herself wondering if the people driving by “know who’s in the midst of them as they’re driving back and forth.” 

The religious sister encouraged anyone seeking the Lord to “just set a little bit of time aside for him.” 

“It’s difficult times we live in. Just pop your head in to see him and I guarantee that he’ll assist you. His loving presence will fill you with peace and grace. All we have to say is, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening,’ and in any difficulty, any trial, any blessing, too — you won’t regret it.”

The sisters start their day early and follow a regulated schedule of prayer, daily Mass, mealtimes, work time, Holy Hours, and recreation. 

“I have always believed, from when I entered years ago, that it was the perfect balance of the day, and that’s because I’m called to live it,” Mother Marie André shared.

When asked what she would tell someone discerning religious life, she said: “Step out in courage and faith.”

“We have to kind of slow down, walk beside him or even behind him saying, ‘Lord, you know whatever you want. I say yes,’” she explained. “All, really, that matters is that you say yes to the Lord and you are able to receive the grace to say, ‘Whatever you want. May your holy will be done.’”

It is for this same reason that Mother Marie André sees St. Clare as such an important saint.

“She really put all of her trust in the Lord — total trust in his divine providence,” she said. “That’s what Mother Angelica did and that’s what we’re all required to do. The way is not always clear. It wasn’t clear for holy Mother Clare, but we just have to be patient and trust. And that’s what she was because she really believed with Jesus that we don’t have anything to fear.”

Today there are 27 monasteries of Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration around the world in countries including France, Bangladesh, India, Germany, and Poland.

This story was first published on Aug. 11, 2023, and has been updated.