Nigeria is “sinking in many fronts,” the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, has said. / Credit: Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria

ACI Africa, Sep 17, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Nigeria is “sinking in many fronts,” the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) said at a recent meeting, lamenting that in addition to economic hardships Nigerians are grappling with, many communities have been thrown into perpetual mourning due to unending insecurity.

In his address at the ongoing interactive session between CBCN and the “prominent lay faithful” of Calabar ecclesiastical province, Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji said many Nigerians have been killed, and those who fled are languishing in camps where they are exposed to extreme weather conditions, often without food and water.

Acknowledging “notable progress here and there” in the country where persecution against Christians is said to be the highest globally, the archbishop of Nigeria’s Archdiocese of Owerri said: “We also lament that our beloved country Nigeria is sinking in many fronts.”

“Insecurity continues to haunt us,” he said at the nine-day event that started on Sept. 11. “Many towns and villages across the nation have become communities of fear, flight, and funerals.”

“Our fellow citizens are being daily kidnapped, extorted, dehumanized, killed, or forced to flee their ancestral homes, abandoning their sources of livelihood to seek refuge in makeshift camps, exposed to extreme weather conditions, often without food and water,” the CBCN president said.

The CBCN interaction with the faithful of Calabar ecclesiastical province is being held at the Diocesan Retreat and Youth Centre in Akwa Ibom state.

Over the years, it has been CBCN’s custom to have an interactive session with the faithful of the ecclesiastical province wherever the bishops gather for their plenary assembly.

The goal, Ugorji said in a statement shared with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, is for the bishops in Nigeria to know the people they serve “closely, to share their concerns and to acquaint them with our own concerns as shepherds of God’s flock in Nigeria.”

In his address, the archbishop expressed concern about the growing poverty in the West African nation, where he said unemployment continues to increase.

“We are deeply troubled that our fellow Nigerians have continued to groan under economic hardship and seem doomed to a life of destitution and frustration,” he said.

“We are also worried about the high rate of youth unemployment, which is driving some of our young men and women to crimes and others to migrate in search of greener pastures abroad, leading to brain drain and continuous loss of some of our best and brightest minds.”

He further lamented that Nigeria’s health sector is on its knees, noting that the death of the immediate former President Muhammadu Buhari in London exposed the gaps in the country’s health care.

Buhari’s death on July 13 away from home, Ugorji said, “raised fresh questions about our crumbling health institutions, the mass exodus of our medical professionals, the billions of naira [Nigeria’s monetary unit] spent abroad by our leaders on medical tourism, while millions of Nigerians languish at home from treatable ailments due to the miserable state of our hospitals.”

Also worrying is Nigeria’s educational institutions that the CBCN president said are facing significant challenges, including inadequate funding, “decaying infrastructure” and diminishing number of qualified teachers.

The result, he said, is a steady decline in the quality of education.

Underpinning the challenges, the archbishop said, is corruption, which he described as moral rottenness that is “spreading unchecked like a deadly cancer to all sectors of our national life, silently eating up the soul of the nation.”

The official of CBCN expressed concern that while Nigerians face serious existential threats, many politicians at the national and sub-national levels seem more preoccupied with the country’s 2027 general elections and less concerned with fulfilling their campaign promises to the electorate.

The opposition on the other hand, he said, “is busy building coalitions to clench power in 2027.”

“If this state of affairs continues, the nation will totally collapse,” Ugorji warned, calling for “a drastic change” to allow the common good to drive Nigeria’s economic, social, and cultural life.

“Who is to effect the transformation of our nation?” he posed. “We strongly believe that the lay faithful have a major and decisive role to play in this matter.”

Acknowledging that change is not easy to come about in Nigeria’s political system, the archbishop said: “If we expect much from the laity in the area of national transformation, much has to be given to them in terms of political education.”

He underlined the need for political education that encourages honest and God-fearing lay faithful to join political parties and persuade those with the talent for leadership to seek political office as a way of advancing the common good in accordance with the social teaching of the Church.

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

View of the San Diego skyline. / Credit: russellstreet, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Sep 17, 2025 / 13:19 pm (CNA).

A deacon in San Diego told parishioners last week that he will voluntarily deport himself after his residency status was revoked by the U.S. government.

The deacon reportedly made the announcement at St. Jude Shrine of the West during Masses on Sept. 14. Local media reported that the clergyman came to the U.S. when he was 13 and “served the St. Jude community for roughly four decades.” He will reportedly be returning to Tijuana, Mexico.

Local reports did not identify the deacon. A diocesan representative indicated to CNA that the news reports were accurate, but the diocese said it could not identify the deacon himself and that he was handling the matter privately.

Representatives at St. Jude Parish did not respond to queries regarding the announcement.

The deacon’s self-deportation comes amid a wave of heightened immigration enforcement around the country as the Trump administration works to ramp up deportations of immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

Catholic and Christian advocates have criticized the elevated enforcement. Prior to his death, Pope Francis in February told the U.S. bishops that amid the deportations, the faithful “are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa.”

In the spring, meanwhile, religious leaders including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Association of Evangelicals lamented the potential impacts of mass deportations on Christian families in the U.S.

A “significant share of the immigrants who are a part of our body are vulnerable to deportation, whether because they have no legal status or their legal protections could be withdrawn,” the leaders said. 

In some cases priests have faced deportation or loss of legal status amid changing immigration rules. In Texas, a Mexican-born Catholic priest who served in the Diocese of Laredo, Texas, for nine years left the United States last month because his application for residency was denied and his religious worker visa was expiring.

Catholic advocates have repeatedly warned that changes to U.S. visa rules have brought about a looming crisis in which many U.S.-based priests will be forced to leave their ministries, return to their home countries, and remain there for lengthy wait times.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told EWTN News in August that the Trump administration is “committed” to addressing that issue. 

“We’ll have a plan to fix it,” Rubio said. Details of that plan have yet to be released.

Pope Leo XIV addresses pilgrims at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Sept. 17, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 17, 2025 / 10:18 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday condemned the “unacceptable conditions” faced by civilians in Gaza and called for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and renewed efforts toward a negotiated diplomatic solution.

“I express my profound closeness to the Palestinian people in Gaza, who continue to live in fear and to survive in unacceptable conditions, forcibly displaced — once again — from their own lands,” the pope said at his weekly general audience. “Before God almighty, who commanded ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ and in the sight of all of human history, every person always has an inviolable dignity, to be respected and upheld.”

“I renew my appeal for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and a negotiated diplomatic solution, fully respecting international humanitarian law. I invite you all to join in my heartfelt prayer that a dawn of peace and justice may soon arise,” he added.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening before returning to the Vatican from the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo, Leo XIV said he had been in contact with Father Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest of Holy Family Parish in Gaza.

“Many have nowhere to go, and that is a great concern,” the pope said. “For now they want to stay, they are still resisting, but a real solution must be found.”

The pope also dismissed claims from Moscow that NATO had begun a war against Russia, noting Poland’s concerns about violations of its airspace. “The concern is great,” he said.

Catechesis about Holy Saturday

In his catechesis at the audience on Wednesday, part of his series on “Jesus Christ our Hope” for the Jubilee 2025, the pope reflected on the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ lay in the tomb.

“The Son of God lies in the tomb. But this ‘absence’ of his is not emptiness: It is expectation, a restrained fullness, a promise kept in the dark. It is the day of the great silence, in which the sky seems mute and the earth immobile, but it is precisely there that the deepest mystery of the Christian faith is fulfilled. It is a silence laden with meaning, like the womb of a mother who carries her unborn but already living child,” he said.

Recalling that Jesus was laid in a garden tomb, the pope said the scene recalls the lost Eden and signals a new creation: “That tomb, never used, speaks of something that has still to happen: It is a threshold, not an end.”

He explained that Holy Saturday is also a day of rest: “The Son too, after completing his work of salvation, rests. Not because he is tired, but because he loved up to the very end. There is nothing left to add. This rest is the seal on the completed task; it is the confirmation that what should have been done has truly been accomplished. It is a repose filled with the hidden presence of the Lord.”

The pope contrasted this with the demands of modern life. “We struggle to stop and rest. We live as if life were never enough. We rush to produce, to prove ourselves, to keep up. But the Gospel teaches us that knowing how to stop is an act of trust that we must learn to perform.”

“In the tomb, Jesus, the living Word of the Father, is silent. But it is precisely in that silence that the new life begins to ferment. Like a seed in the ground, like the darkness before dawn. God is not afraid of the passing time, because he is also the God of waiting. Thus, even our ‘useless’ time, that of pauses, emptiness, barren moments, can become the womb of resurrection,” he said.

The pope described Jesus in the tomb as “the meek face of a God who does not occupy all space. He is the God who lets things be done, who waits, who withdraws to leave us freedom. He is the God who trusts, even when everything seems to be over.”

“At times we seek quick answers, immediate solutions. But God works in depth, in the slow time of trust,” he added. “The Sabbath of the burial thus becomes the womb from which the strength of an invincible light, that of Easter, can spring forth.”

“Christian hope is not born in noise but in the silence of an expectation filled with love. It is not the offspring of euphoria but of trustful abandonment. The Virgin Mary teaches us this: She embodies this expectation, this trust, this hope,” he said. “When it seems to us that everything is at a standstill, that life is a blocked road, let us remember Holy Saturday. Even in the tomb, God was preparing the greatest surprise of all.”

The pope concluded that “true joy is born of indwelt expectation, of patient faith, of the hope that what has been lived in love will surely rise to eternal life.”

As is customary, Leo greeted pilgrims from his popemobile in St. Peter’s Square, where many families gathered for his blessing. The day coincided with the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine, patron saint of Leo XIV, which is a holiday in the Vatican.

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

null / Credit: Zolnierek/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 17, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

An appellate court in Mississippi dismissed an employment-related lawsuit brought against an agency of the Southern Baptist Convention, ruling that a secular court cannot intervene in matters of religious governance.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi ruled 2-1 to dismiss Will McRaney’s lawsuit against the North American Mission Board (NAMB), which he first brought over eight years ago. The court cited the long-standing church autonomy doctrine.

McRaney was fired from his role in the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware (BCMD) in 2015 based on a dispute about how to implement the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) between BCMD and NAMB.

According to the court ruling, McRaney was tasked with implementing the SPA’s evangelical objectives to spread the Baptist faith “through church planting and evangelism.” The ruling states the dispute was related to “missionary selection and funding, associational giving, and missionary work requirements.”

The BCMD ultimately voted 37-0 to fire him “because of his wretched leadership,” among other reasons, according to the court. Alternatively, McRaney alleged in his lawsuit that he was fired because NAMB defamed him by spreading “disparaging falsehoods.”

The three-judge panel did not rule on the merits of the dispute, but rather a majority found that resolving the claims would require the court “to decide matters of faith and doctrine,” which the courts do not have the authority to do because religious bodies have autonomy when handling such matters based on Supreme Court precedent related to the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion.

“The church is constitutionally protected against all judicial intrusion into its ecclesiastical affairs — even brief and momentary ones,” the court ruled.

“Can a secular court determine whether NAMB’s conduct was the ‘proximate cause’ of BCMD’s decision to terminate McRaney, without unlawfully intruding on a religious organization’s internal management decisions?” the judges wrote.

“And can a secular court decide it was ‘false’ that McRaney’s leadership lacked Christlike character?” they continued. “To ask these questions is to answer them: no. The SPA is not a mere civil contract; it is ‘an inherently religious document’ that is ‘steeped in religious doctrine.’”

Hiram Sasser, the executive general counsel for First Liberty Institute, which helped provide legal counsel to NAMB, said in a statement that the court’s ruling is consistent with the First Amendment.

“The First Amendment prohibits the government from interfering with the autonomy of religious organizations and the church,” Sasser said. “No court should be able to tell a church who it must hire to preach their beliefs, teach their faith, or carry out their mission.”

Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez dissented from the court’s majority, stating: “His secular claims against a third-party organization do not implicate matters of church government or of faith and doctrine.”

McRaney told Baptist News Global that he intends to petition the court for an “en banc” hearing, which would require the entirety of the appellate court to be present for a hearing. He told the outlet that NAMB “fooled the courts” and said the Southern Baptist Convention is “not a church” and he wasn’t employed by NAMB, which means it is not an internal church matter.

In 2023, a Texas judge dismissed a civil lawsuit from a Carmelite monastery against Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson on similar grounds. The dispute was over a diocesan investigation into an alleged sexual affair between the monastery’s prioress and a priest.

The Carmelite Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, Texas, in this case ultimately entered into a formal association with the Society of St. Pius X, which is not in full communion with the Catholic Church. The bishop called this a “scandalous” act that was “permeated with the odor of schism.” The Holy See suppressed the monastery.

The original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with the Mexican flag. / Credit: David Ramos/ACI Prensa

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 17, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

In a country “bled dry by violence, confused by ideologies, and threatened in its institutions,” the Catholic Church offered a prayer “to God and to our Most Holy Mother of Guadalupe”: “Long live Mexico!”

The Mexican Bishops’ Conference made the prayer in their most recent statement on the occasion of the Mexican national holiday, which commemorates the beginning of the country’s struggle for independence on Sept. 16, 1810.

Noting that the proclamation “Long live Mexico!” would be heard in the main squares of cities across the country commemorating the “Grito de Dolores” (Cry of Dolores) with which Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo initiated the drive for independence from Spain, the bishops said this slogan would be chanted by Mexicans “in every corner of Mexico, and without a doubt, Catholics will unite to exclaim from the heart: ‘Long live Mexico!’”

However, they clarified, “for us, this exclamation is not a cry of celebration but a profound prayer to God and to our Most Holy Mother of Guadalupe.”

In their message, the bishops called for the country to respect the lives of children “from conception; that they be provided decent conditions for development; that their innocence not be darkened by ideologies that confuse their hearts.”

For young people, the bishops asked “that they be offered opportunities to pursue their dreams with equity and justice; that they be rescued from the clutches of drugs and violence; that Mexico shines by the ingenuity, bravery, and courage of its young people.”

They also demanded that Mexican women be provided with “safe, respectful, and equitable spaces; that their dignity, gifts, and potential be valued; that their motherhood and their irreplaceable ability to educate our children be respected; that they be offered opportunities for development and advancement.”

They also called for “every family to discover its vocation to be a school of life, respect, and love; that families live free from violence and become promoters of peace.”

Violence in Mexico

According to the Spanish-language report “MX: The War in Numbers,” in the first 11 months of the current Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration, there have been 24,696 homicides. However, a downward trend has been observed compared with the six-year term of her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, founder of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party of which Sheinbaum is a part, who ended his term having had the most violent period in modern Mexican history with 199,970 homicides.

These figures appear to confirm the trend recorded by the Mexico 2025 Peace Index, which recognizes that “peace in Mexico improved by 0.7% in 2024, marking the fifth consecutive year of moderate improvement after four years of pronounced deterioration.”

However, alongside the decrease in homicides, another figure continues to rise: disappearances.

“A growing trend of people reported missing has been identified throughout the country,” the report states. “Since 2010, approximately 292,000 cases of disappeared persons have been recorded in Mexico, and more than half of these cases occurred in the last six years,” it adds.

Along with violence, primarily linked to organized crime, the shadow of corruption allegations looms over Mexico. In recent weeks, the scandal of the so-called “fiscal huachicol,” a network smuggling fuel into the United States, appears to involve businessmen, customs authorities, and military officials.

Amid this reality, Sheinbaum became the first female president of Mexico to perform the “Grito de Dolores” from the balcony of the National Palace on the evening of Sept. 15.

‘Realities that overshadow any data or figure’

Father Omar Sotelo, priest, journalist, and director of the Catholic Multimedia Center — which tracks how violence affects the Catholic Church in Mexico — lamented that Sheinbaum’s administration “has relied on an opaque reality, going back and forth between data and figures, when reality hits us hard.”

“They tell us that homicides have decreased, but disappearances are increasing. They tell us there is no corruption, and now, unfortunately, we find this corruption occurring with the infamous ‘huachicol’ [stealing fuel]; the Navy being involved in these types of situations, commanders who continue to be obviously infiltrated by organized crime and who are being arrested.”

“These are realities that overshadow any data or figure,” he pointed out to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

Sotelo noted that Sheinbaum has had the “historic” opportunity to establish “her own style,” distancing herself “from the commitments that possibly led her to the presidency.”

This, he said, meant recognizing that “obviously, criminality, organized crime, have overwhelmed us.”

Accepting this reality, he insisted, “is simply saying that we are analyzing and accepting that we need to change,” because “we cannot deny that the reality is one of rampant violence, that attacks on every side, in every direction, and that comes from many sectors and has infiltrated high levels of government.”

Mexico’s hope

However, Sotelo resists despair: “We must know that we are not prophets of doom and that we must always keep our eyes on the hope of always improving and always trying to move forward.”

“I think it’s important to recognize that Mexico is a great country. We cannot forget that,” he emphasized.

Politicians must be willing to “accept this reality before justifying it. That will be the first step toward the transformation of the Mexico we truly want to celebrate.”

The director of the Catholic Multimedia Center also pointed out that the Catholic Church has a dual responsibility: “to denounce that which goes against the Gospel,” such that “we must be the first to promote a denunciation [of evils] that rebuilds dignity and trust. And that means not remaining silent.”

This, he emphasized, contrasts with the maneuvers of criminal groups: “Organized crime sometimes muzzles us; it has kept us silent, and that is what it wants: to maintain a silent and submissive population.”

The Catholic faithful also have a responsibility in this work of peace, he added, because each one must “fully embrace Christianity,” remembering that “we go to Mass to recognize the master Jesus Christ, to fill ourselves with him and then spread that love of Jesus Christ to every corner of the world, so that we can transform what is arid today, what has fallen today, what has become bloody today.”

The family and the fight against ‘narcoculture’

The priest and journalist also warned of how organized crime has permeated the so-called “narcoculture” in Mexican society, presenting the life of drug trafficking as “something to aspire to.”

In this way, he warned, criminals attract young people “with the intention of their becoming cannon fodder and tomorrow being used and then tossed in the garbage.”

“Only the family can fight this narcoculture that is invading our communities, that is invading social media,” he stated.

“Today we must reaffirm emphatically that the family is where the authentic citizen of values ​​is born, where the authentic Christian is born, and where the next saint will be born,” he emphasized, recalling the recent canonization of young people Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis. “We must reclaim the strength of a family that will once again generate worthy and responsible men, dedicated Christians, and potential saints.”

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

null / Credit: HQuality/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 17, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

A new Lifeway Research study reveals that a slim majority of Americans believe it is morally acceptable for terminally ill individuals to request physician-assisted suicide, while more believe physicians should be allowed to help patients who want to end their lives.

The study, titled "American Views on Assisted Suicide," found that 51% of respondents consider it morally acceptable for someone with a painful terminal disease to seek a physician’s assistance in ending their life. Slightly more, 55%, believe physicians should be legally permitted to assist patients who request help in ending their lives. 

However, the support is not robust, according to the study: only 1 in 5 Americans said they “strongly agree” that it is morally acceptable for patients to ask for help to end their lives, while 30% say they “somewhat agree.” 

A slightly higher number of Americans surveyed, one in four, say doctors should be allowed to help patients to end their lives.

The study also found that 32% found physician-assisted suicide morally unacceptable, with 17% saying they are unsure.

Regionally, support varies, with urban and coastal areas showing higher approval (up to 60% in some places) compared with rural or Southern states, where opposition often aligns with faith-based values, according to Lifeway. The Lifeway study, conducted via online panels, sampled 1,200 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, an evangelical Protestant research firm, noted: “Half of Americans seek their own comfort and their own way even in their death, but that doesn’t mean they don’t think twice about the morality of physician-assisted suicide.”

CNA also spoke about the survey’s results with Jessica Rodgers, coalitions director at the Patients’ Rights Action Fund, a nonsectarian, nonpartisan group whose purpose is “to abolish assisted suicide laws.” The organization calls such laws “inherently discriminatory, impossible to safely regulate, and put the most vulnerable members of society at risk of deadly harm.”

Waning support, growing opposition

Rodgers told CNA these poll numbers actually show a decrease in public support.

“I certainly don’t see momentum on their side,” she said.

Indeed, a Lifeway Research study in 2016 found that 67% of those surveyed said the practice was morally acceptable, while 33% disagreed.

Rodgers said that as people learn more about how dangerous the policies surrounding legalizing assisted suicide are, they tend to oppose the practice, and “opposition cuts across the political spectrum.”

In New York, where the state Legislature recently passed a bill legalizing the practice, Gov. Kathy Hochul has yet to sign the legislation into law. 

“She hears daily from diverse advocates from across the political spectrum asking her to veto,” Rodgers said. “In fact, some of the most passionate opposition to the bill has been Democratic leadership.”

“I see people all over the spectrum who agree on nothing else,” she said.

Disability advocates, health care personnel, and members of multiple religious groups have united in their opposition to the laws, saying legalizing assisted suicide is bad for their communities and bad for patients. 

‘Dying in pain or in peace’ is a false choice

“Proponents often frame it falsely as “Do you want to die in pain or do you want a peaceful death?’” according to Rodgers, who said the practice actually targets people with disabilities. 

“It puts our vulnerable neighbors at risk, and as people learn more about it, they tend to oppose it,” she said, citing that physician-assisted suicide is now the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada.

Since Oregon legalized physician-assisted suicide through the Death with Dignity Act in 1997, by 2025, 11 states and Washington, D.C., now permit the practice. Most legislation requires terminal diagnoses with six months or less to live, mental competency, and multiple doctor approvals. 

Physician-assisted suicide is different from euthanasia, which is the direct killing of a patient by a medical professional.

Voluntary euthanasia is legal in a limited number of countries including Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and Portugal. In Belgium and the Netherlands, minors can be euthanized if they request it.

Where does the Church stand on assisted suicide?

The Catholic Church condemns both assisted suicide and euthanasia, instead encouraging palliative care, which means supporting patients with pain management and care as the end of their lives approaches. Additionally, the Church advocates for a “special respect” for anyone with a disability or serious health condition (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2276). 

According to the catechism, “intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder” and “gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and the respect due to the living God, his Creator” (CCC, 2324).

Any action or lack of action that intentionally “causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator” (CCC, 2277).

Catholic teaching also states that patients and doctors are not required to do everything possible to avoid death, but if a life has reached its natural conclusion and medical intervention would not be beneficial, the decision to “forego extraordinary or disproportionate means” to keep a dying person alive is not euthanasia, as St. John Paul II explained in Evangelium Vitae.

This story was updated on Sept. 17, 2025 at 11:55 a.m. ET.

Four members of the Missionary Sisters of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus (MCST) in Tanzania lost their lives in a road accident in the country’s Archdiocese of Mwanza on Sept. 15, 2025. / Credit: Suore Carmelitane Missionarie Italia Malta Romania

ACI Africa, Sep 17, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Four members of the Missionary Sisters of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus (MCST) in Tanzania are among five people who lost their lives in a tragic road accident in the country’s Archdiocese of Mwanza on Monday. 

The Sept. 15 accident in which the MCST superior general and secretary died alongside two other sisters and a driver happened in the Kaluluma-Bukumbi area. 

One sister survived the tragic accident and was admitted to Bugando Hospital, where she remains in critical condition.

In a statement obtained on Tuesday by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, Archbishop Renatus Leonard Nkwande of the Mwanza Archdiocese announced the passing of the four Carmelites, “who were serving at Bukumbi Girls’ Secondary School, together with their driver.”

“Further arrangements will be communicated later,” Nkwande said.

The four MCST members who died were Sister Lilian Kapongo, the superior general; Sister Nerinathe, secretary; and Sisters Damaris Matheka and Stellamaris. All of them had traveled to Ngaya in Tanzania’s Diocese of Kahama for the perpetual profession of three of their sisters over the weekend.

Their driver, Boniphase Msonola, who was reportedly taking them to the airport to return to Dar es Salaam, also died in the accident.

In the statement, Nkwande, on behalf the entire Kahama Diocese, expressed “deep sorrow” following the tragic accident.

“At this hour of 11 p.m., we have received news of the deaths of our beloved four sisters and their driver. They were involved in a car accident, colliding with a lorry [truck] in Mwanza while on their way to the airport for a journey to Dar es Salaam tonight,” the archbishop said.

The statement traced the final journey of the four sisters and their driver.

“They began their journey from here in Kahama heading to Mwanza, passing by the bishop’s residence to bid us farewell. Tonight, while traveling from their community in Bukumbi-Mwanza to the airport, they were involved in an accident and lost their lives,” Nkwande explained.

The statement also called for prayers — for the lone sister who survived the crash as well as the entire community and loved ones of those who died. 

“In this time of mourning and grief, let us pray for and console the community of the sisters of this congregation in Ngaya. This is truly a heavy loss for them and for all of us.”

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

St. Hildegard of Bingen. / Credit: Lettera43.it, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Sep 17, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Every gift from the Holy Spirit is meant for the edification of the community of believers, Pope Benedict XVI said in a general audience back in 2010 when he focused his catechesis on the life of St. Hildegard of Bingen, whose feast is celebrated Sept. 17 in the universal Church.

Benedict praised her as a model for modern women religious and noted that she benefited the faithful by her willingness to submit her supernatural visions to the interpretation of the Church.

Referring first to St. John Paul II’s apostolic letter Mulieris Dignitatem on the role of women in the life of the Church, Benedict XVI noted that the letter “gives thanks for all the manifestations of the feminine ‘genius’ which have appeared in the course of history.” He then highlighted the figure of St. Hildegard of Bingen as one of the saintly women who stood out nearly a millennium ago.

Born into a noble German family in the year 1098, Hildegard began her studies in human and Christian formation at a Benedictine convent in the town of Bingen, took her vows to cloistered life and, 30 years after she began her formation, became a mother superior.

Carrying out this role competently, she was able to found an additional convent nearby where she spent a great part of her life. The way she exercised authority there continues to be an example for religious communities today, Benedict said, explaining that she was able to create an atmosphere of “holy emulation in the practice of the good, so much so that ... the mother and daughters competed in respecting and serving each other.”

Benedict XVI also recalled her mystical visions, which she first shared with people in confidence, including her spiritual director, a fellow sister, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux. “As always happens in the lives of the true mystics,” the pope said, “Hildegard also wished to submit herself to the authority of wise people to discern the origin of her visions.”

St. Bernard, whom Benedict said held “maximum esteem” in the Church at the time, “calmed and encouraged” the sister about the visions, and eventually Pope Eugene III gave her the authorization to write and speak about the visions publicly.

“This,” the former pope taught, “is the seal of an authentic experience of the Holy Spirit, source of every charism: the person (who is the) repository of supernatural gifts never boasts, does not flaunt them and, especially, shows total obedience to the ecclesiastical authorities.”

He added: “Every gift distributed by the Holy Spirit, in fact, is destined for the edification of the Church, and the Church, through its pastors, recognizes their authenticity.”

In 2012, Hildegard was canonized and named a doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI. 

This story was first published on Sept. 1, 2010, and has been updated.

Priests throughout the country have mentioned assassinated conservative Christian activisit Charlie Kirk in their homilies this week. / Credit: ChoeWatt/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 16, 2025 / 18:24 pm (CNA).

Catholic priests around the country have discussed the assassination of Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk during their homilies in the last week.

Kirk, 31, was shot during a campus event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. The alleged shooter has since been apprehended and identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika, and their two young children.

“So many times it seems almost surreal how the Gospel passage for the day fits … a situation that we face as Christians in our daily lives,” Father Chris Alar at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, said during his homily on Sept. 11, referencing the day’s reading from the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus instructs his disciples to love their enemies.

“That is what Charlie Kirk did. I was watching some of his videos last night, and he was saying of murderers that they are still children of God, and he prayed for them,” the priest reflected, noting that though Kirk was political, he had not been a politician.

“When one side realizes they can’t defeat the truth, they turn to violence,” he said, citing the emperor Herod, who he said “realized that he couldn’t defeat the truth, so he turned to violence.”

Father John Hollowell at All Saints Parish in Indianapolis also reflected during his homily on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that he had felt “a great welling up in my heart” to join the military in the aftermath of the tragic event 24 years ago. Ultimately, he said, “I felt God telling me that the way that I was supposed to respond to the tragedy that I was seeing unfolding 24 years ago today was to become a diocesan priest.” 

“Throughout the last 12 hours,” he said, “some of your young adult children and young adult family and friends are having that same urge to join the military, to join the police.”

He continued: “We need to just take a minute to just calmly ask ourselves: ‘Lord, what do you want me to do with my life? How can I lay down my life more perfectly for other people, for my country, for my community, for my parish?’ And God will let you know.” 

“On Sept. 11, my prayers are with Charlie Kirk’s wife, with his children, but also in this tragic time in the United States of America,” said Father Jonathan Meyer, also of All Saints Parish. “My prayers are also with the family of the refugee from Charlotte, the families in Minnesota that ... grieve and mourn, but also for those 24 years ago who, due to acts of hate, still don’t have their grandparents, their parents, their sons.”

“Just this week we were reminded once again of how fallen our world is with the murder of Charlie Kirk,” said Father Eric Ayers of St. Bede Catholic Church in Williamsburg, Virginia, during his Sunday homily. “He was the most recent in a long line in the last number of years of attempts at assassinations … [and] other acts of violence that occur in the political spheres.”

“These acts of violence of course are unconscionable and are a horrible tragedy for our nation,” he added. 

The priest stated “before we blame one side or another, we need to remember that those actions don’t represent the vast majority of people for whom politics is important.” 

Noting that “language over politics has gotten more extreme, more polarizing, more divisive," Ayers concluded his reflections by advocating for self-sacrifice and the abandonment of “ego” as ways to foster civility in political discourse in the U.S. 

In churches where Kirk’s death was not mentioned in the priest’s homily, prayers were offered for the repose of his soul, including on Sunday Mass at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C, and at St. Joseph’s on Capitol Hill.

Father John Evans of the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City told a local news outlet that people began gathering at the cathedral in the wake of Kirk’s assassination, with many coming to the church before Sunday Mass, “praying privately, some in groups, praying the rosary, and different prayers of different sorts.”

Several users on social media noted their priests offered homilies about Kirk’s death, with one account on X writing: “Today at my Catholic Mass the homily was about Charlie Kirk, what he stood for … It was about walking in Jesus’ shoes and bearing our cross.”

Another user reported that the homily at his parish centered on Kirk and said his church prayed a rosary for the late TPUSA founder after Mass. 

Catholic social media influencer Sachin Jose also noted the church where he attended Mass in New York “remembered Charlie Kirk in the priest’s homily.”

Marian shrine in Mariamabad, Pakistan. / Credit: Agenzia Fides, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 16, 2025 / 17:42 pm (CNA).

Men on motorcycles murdered a father and injured a 16-year-old boy while they were taking part in a pilgrimage to the national Marian shrine of the Virgin Mary in Mariamabad in Pakistan, an incident that has shocked Christians in the Muslim-majority country.

According to the Vatican news agency Fides on Sept. 12, Afzal Masih, a married father of four, was murdered on Sept. 7 while he was on a pilgrimage to the shrine located in the Archdiocese of Lahore.

“We are deeply saddened by the murder of Afzal Masih. He was a devout Catholic who was participating in a Marian pilgrimage to venerate and pray to the Virgin Mary. Today, we express our deepest condolences to his family,” Father Tariq George, rector of the shrine, told Fides.

The murder occurred while Afzal Masih was traveling with 15 other members of the faithful and several young men on motorcycles approached the minibus and began to provoke the group. 

When the pilgrims stopped at a gas station 19 miles from the shrine, a man identified as Muhammad Waqas opened fire with a rifle, killing Afzal Masih with a shot to the neck and wounding his 16-year-old cousin, Harris Masih, in the arm.

Afzal Masih was taken to the hospital but died. After his arrest, Waqas told police that he “had no intention of killing.”

Christians in Pakistan are calling for an investigation into the case and for justice to be done.

The Marian shrine celebrated its annual feast Sept. 5–8, bringing together some 500,000 Catholic and other Christian faithful as well as Muslims and Hindus.

Despite the rains and floods, said Father Qaisar Feroz, communications officer for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, the faithful weren’t stopped from coming to the Marian shrine.

Mariamabad, founded in 1893 by Capuchin missionaries, includes a Marian grotto inspired by the Lourdes grotto in France. It was declared a national shrine in 1949.

Pakistan, with a population of over 241 million, is 96% Muslim, while Christians make up just 1.4% of the country, or about 3.3 million people.

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