Archbishop José Gomez delivers the homily at a special Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels amid burning fires in Los Angeles on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. / Credit: The Archdiocese of Los Angeles/YouTube

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 21, 2025 / 16:50 pm (CNA).

Archbishop José H. Gómez of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles criticized President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts and urged lawmakers to find a bipartisan solution to fix the American immigration system.

“My brother bishops and I have seen how this deportation policy is ruining people’s lives and breaking up families; in our parishes and neighborhoods, people are now living in constant fear,” Gómez said in a Nov. 18 op-ed published in Angelus News.

Gómez — who serves the largest archdiocese in the country and a large Hispanic population — referenced the Nov. 12 special message from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which conveyed unified opposition to “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” approved by 96% of bishops who voted.

In his op-ed, Gómez accused the Trump administration of carrying out deportations “in harsh and indiscriminate ways.” He criticized alleged quotas for arrests, raids on workplaces, limits to foreign worker visas and other legal pathways to the United States, and the revocation of some immigrants’ “temporary protected legal status.”

“Agents are not only picking up violent criminals, they are also detaining mothers and fathers, even grandparents, hardworking men and women who are pillars in our parishes and communities,” the archbishop said.

Gómez expressed concerns about a lack of due process and detention centers being “not safe or clean.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has repeatedly denied these claims, with a spokesperson telling CNA on Nov. 17 that the administration “cares deeply about the intrinsic human dignity of everybody it comes in contact with.”

The archbishop also expressed concern about detainees being denied Communion, such as has occurred at a facility in Broadview, Illinois. A DHS spokesperson told CNA that the request in Broadview could not be accommodated because of safety concerns and the manner of clergy’s requests to enter.

“And this is what really could have avoided this entire kerfuffle on the front is if people just reached out ahead of time and did a lot of these things ahead of time, instead of, in one situation, there was one retired priest who simply just showed up in a large mob of people and demanded to be let in,” said Nate Madden, principal deputy assistant secretary for communications at DHS. 

Father Larry Dowling, a retired pastor and a member of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Life’s clergy council, led a Eucharistic procession to Broadview on Oct. 11 where participants sang and prayed the rosary in English and Spanish. After multiple denials following formal requests and attempts to follow DHS’ admittance policy, Catholic clergy have sued to exercise their right to freedom of religion and distribute Communion at the facility.

The DHS said pastoral care is available at all long-term detention facilities, but that Broadview is a short-term processing facility designed for 12-hour stays. Detainees have alleged confinement there for nearly a week.

The administration says it has deported more than 500,000 people and that at least 1.6 million more have self-deported, according to DHS. A department spokesperson said on Oct. 27: “This is just the beginning.”

Gómez acknowledged “our government has the right to enforce its immigration laws,” which includes deportations. Yet, he said, “deportation is not the only way to hold people accountable for entering the country wrongfully.”

Gómez encouraged the Trump administration to “pause” mass deportation efforts and “refocus its enforcement efforts on those who are truly a threat to public safety and order.” He asked the administration to work with Congress to pass immigration reform legislation.

Gómez: ‘There is still a way forward’

The archbishop acknowledged that anxiety about large-scale migration into the United States and former President Joe Biden’s “loose border enforcement policies” partly resulted in Americans electing Trump in 2024.

Gómez said “growing anxiety and fears about how the global economy is reshaping local economies and communities” and people seeing immigrants as “threats to their livelihoods” also factored into election results.

Although he said he understands “the popular anger about uncontrolled borders and large numbers of undocumented people in our country,” he said Trump’s policies are “no way to defend the rule of law or the sovereignty of our great nation.”

The archbishop said it’s true that people who entered the country illegally “have responsibility for their actions,” but said the system has been broken for more than 40 years. He said many “came with the implied understanding that the authorities would look the other way because businesses needed their labor.”

“Politicians, business leaders, and activist groups have long exploited this issue for their own advantage,” Gómez said. “That is why the problem persists.”

The archbishop said “there is still a way forward” on immigration. He said solutions could include holding people accountable in some way while also providing people with a pathway for legal status. 

“Millions of undocumented men and women in this country have no criminal record and have been living and working here for decades,” he said. “These immigrants own homes, they run businesses, or work in jobs our society needs; they have children and grandchildren; they are good neighbors and faithful parishioners.”

“Surely a great nation can find a generous solution for these people — to hold them accountable for breaking our laws, but also to provide them with a pathway to a permanent legal status,” Gómez said.

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers is a Christian nonprofit in New Jersey. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom

CNA Staff, Nov 21, 2025 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

When the subpoena hit her desk, Aimee Huber had to make a choice: Give up years of private information about her New Jersey-based pregnancy center network or fight back.

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers provides a range of support for mothers in need, including counseling, baby clothes and diapers, parenting classes, ultrasounds, and telehealth options.

But the state attorney general’s office was demanding “10 years of documentation on our donor communications, our advertising, our statements about abortion pill reversal, and even our donors’ identity,” Huber said at a press conference on Nov. 20.

“There were no allegations of wrongdoing,” Huber said. “It was simply a fishing expedition.”

The Christian medical nonprofit does not take any government funding and relies entirely on donor support.

“We are a small nonprofit, and the idea of compiling so much information was completely daunting,” Huber said.

“Since pregnancy centers like ours do not perform abortion, we are targeted by a government that disagrees with our views,” Huber continued.

Meanwhile, “New Jersey has the fifth-highest abortion rate in the nation,” Huber said. 

“Our state has done everything they could to make New Jersey a sanctuary state for abortion,” she said.

So Huber decided to fight back. 

“If our attorney general can bully us, it can happen in other states that promote abortion,” she said. “It’s our hope that our efforts will result in protection for pregnancy centers across the U.S.”  

The case has gone through years of back-and-forth ever since the subpoena hit Huber’s desk in November 2023.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take the case, and the court will hear oral arguments on Dec. 2.

“This legal battle is never something we thought we would be involved in, but the women and the families that we serve are worth it,” Huber said.

‘My guiding light’ 

Meera* had just moved to New Jersey when she learned she was pregnant; with two young children, no family in town, and no insurance, she didn’t know where to turn.

But then she got a next-day appointment with First Choice Women’s Resource Centers.

“I was greeted by a group of wonderful women. They all spoke so well, and they treated me so nicely,” she said during a press call on Thursday.

When Meera couldn’t find anyone to watch her two young boys, she called the clinic to cancel her follow-up ultrasound. 

“You don’t need to cancel your appointment for that,” Meera remembered the woman on the phone telling her. “Bring them.”

When Meera arrived, the clinic had stickers, snacks, and toys for her boys. Two women watched them while Meera had her appointment.

 Since then, Meera enrolled in parenting classes at the clinic and has been a client for the past year and a half while she navigates parenting her third child.  

“First Choice is my guiding light,” Meera said. “They saved me when I really needed them.” 

“These women have changed my life,” she said.

Meera is one of 36,000 women that First Choice, headed by Huber, has helped over their 40 years of service. 

Why the case matters

The case centers on free speech, according to Lincoln Wilson, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, which is helping represent the pregnancy center.

Wilson said that New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is attempting “to harass and persecute First Choice for its protected speech and get its donors to stop supporting it.” 

Platkin has “been overtly hostile to the mission of pregnancy centers,” Wilson said at the press conference on Nov. 20.

“He issued a consumer alert against pregnancy centers, warning New Jerseyans that they do not perform abortions,” Wilson said. “And he even had Planned Parenthood help him draft the alert.”

The alleged targeting has a trickle-down effect that can reach donors and even volunteers at pregnancy centers. Donors often prefer to remain anonymous or private given that supporting pregnancy centers is often stigmatized, according to Odalys Banks, First Choice director of centers. 

“If donors and volunteers were no longer to remain anonymous, the center’s mission would significantly be impacted,” Banks said. 

Volunteers and donors might pull back their support, she said, “out of fear of harassment or stigmatization.”

A board member at an Illinois network of pregnancy centers and maternity homes attested to the safety concerns for volunteers and donors.

“The fear of retribution by supporters of legal abortion is not a fiction, it is a fact,” said Mary FioRito, a Chicago-based attorney and longtime pro-life volunteer, in a statement shared with CNA. 

One of Aid for Women’s centers was badly vandalized, and every year, its annual dinner is protested “despite the fact that the organization is not political, only service-oriented,” she said. 

Centers “should not be forced to reveal the names of those who support them,” FioRito said. 

“Donors and volunteers whose only objective is to provide pregnant women with support should not live in fear of being doxed for doing so,” she continued. 

This case “matters to pregnancy centers around the country,” Lincoln said.  

Pregnancy centers across the U.S. provide hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of service, medical care, and material goods a year, according to a recent report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute. 

But they often face vandalism or even legal challenges from states where abortion is legal. 

“They’re all subject to the same type of harassment, and especially after the Dobbs decision, many of them have suffered violence and vandalism,” Lincoln continued. 

But the case is important for any organization, Lincoln said. 

“Any organization, right or left, no matter which side of the aisle you’re on, there needs to be the ability to keep this information confidential,” Lincoln said. 

*Meera’s last name is withheld for privacy reasons.

A cross stands in Montse Sole Historical Park in memorial of the victims of the massacres carried out there by Nazis in 1944. / Credit: Francesco de Marco/Shutterstock

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2025 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

Father Ubaldo Marchioni was praying the rosary with a fearful congregation in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta outside Bologna, Italy, when Nazi soldiers broke down the door on Sept. 29, 1944, and shot him in the head. 

The remaining 197 people who had taken refuge in the church were forced outside to the cemetery and massacred, including 52 children. The killings marked the first day of what is now known as the Marzabotto Massacre, a large civilian massacre in which Waffen-SS units murdered at least 770 civilians between Sept. 29 and Oct. 5, 1944, including children, women, and the elderly in retaliation for local support of Italian resistance fighters. 

Marchioni, a diocesan priest ordained only two years earlier, was 26 years old. 

On Nov. 21, Pope Leo XIV formally recognized Marchioni as a martyr killed “in hatred for the faith,” along with another Italian priest murdered in the same wave of violence, Father Nicola Capelli.

Capelli, who took the religious name Martino of Our Lady of Sorrows when he professed vows with the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1930, had long dreamed of serving as a missionary in China. Under obedience, he remained in Italy. When news spread of the attacks near Marzabotto, he rushed to the area to administer the last rites.

He was arrested on Sept. 29, 1944, the same day Marchioni was killed, and held for two days. On Oct. 1, SS troops executed him along with 44 other prisoners. Witnesses said he raised his hand to give his fellow prisoners a final blessing before they were shot. He was 32. 

With the pope’s decree, both priests can now be beatified. 

4 Catholics advance on the path to sainthood 

During an audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo also approved decrees recognizing the heroic virtues of four other Catholics, declaring them venerable: Australian doctor and nun Mary Glowrey (1887–1957), Brazilian consecrated laywoman Maria de Lourdes Guarda (1926–1996), Italian Archbishop Enrico Bartoletti (1916–1976), and Italian priest Gaspare Goggi (1877–1908). 

Glowrey, later known as Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, left Australia in 1920 to serve as a doctor and missionary in India. She treated hundreds of poor patients daily, learned local languages, and founded what became the Catholic Hospital Association. Pope Benedict XIV granted her special permission to perform medical work “in bonum animarum,” making her the first nun, doctor, and missionary, according to the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. 

De Lourdes Guarda, a member of the Secular Institute Caritas Christi in Brazil, spent decades paralyzed and bedridden after a sudden illness at age 21. She offered her suffering in prayer and became a national leader in promoting dignity and rights for people with disabilities, even as her health deteriorated from kidney disease, gangrene, and eventually cancer. 

Bartoletti, later archbishop of Lucca and secretary-general of the Italian bishops’ conference, was a biblical scholar who openly opposed the Nazi persecution of Jews and collaborated with Jewish relief groups during the war. After Pope Pius XII named him a bishop, Bartoletti contributed to the Second Vatican Council and guided the Italian Church through major social reforms. 

Goggi, a priest of the Little Work of Divine Providence founded by St. Luigi Orione, served as the first rector of the Church of Sant’Anna inside Vatican City. Known for his devotion to parishioners and his reputation for holiness, he was often sought out for confession. He suffered a severe physical and mental decline in his final months and died in 1908 at age 31. 

Each of the four new venerables will require two miracles attributed to their intercession to be canonized as saints. 

Teens Mia Smothers, Ezequiel Ponce, Micah Alcisto, Elise Wing, and Chris Pantelakis, and moderator Katie McGrady, right, take a “selfie” with Pope Leo XIV during a live digital encounter at Lucas Oil Stadium on Nov. 21, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Katie McGrady

Indianapolis, Indiana, Nov 21, 2025 / 15:20 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV answered questions from five teenagers at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis during a live digital encounter Friday morning. 

Mia Smothers, Micah Alcisto, Ezequiel Ponce, Christopher Pantelakis, and Elise Wing asked Pope Leo questions and held a conversation with him on Nov. 21 as thousands of teens gathered in Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Holy Father discussed matters close to the teens’ hearts including recovering from mistakes, giving worries to Jesus, distractions, technology, and the future of the Church. 

Mia Smothers

Mia Smothers, a freshman from Joppa, Maryland, started the conversation with the pope by asking the first question.  

“At first I was very nervous, but when I saw the Holy Father on the screen, I was like, ‘It’s all going to be OK.’ Because I saw the emotion and how happy he was to be able to talk to us. So it just took the nervousness away,” Smothers told CNA. 

Smothers asked the pope about how people can recover from mistakes and accept God’s mercy. He responded by reminding teens that “all of us struggle” and “none of us [are] perfect.” 

His answer was “very surprising,” because “it showed that he also struggles, and it was another person’s perspective on how they dealt with their problems,” Smothers said.

The pope’s discussion on technology really stood out to Smothers, she said, especially when he said “electronics cannot take away real connections.” Smothers, who has nine siblings, said she hopes they apply the messages from Pope Leo to their lives. 

“I want them to make connections and be more involved in the Church,” she said. “Because as the pope says, we are the present and we’re also the future. So I need them to understand and see if you put yourself out in the Church, great things will happen.”

Pope Leo asked the students to ponder how they can build peace in the world, and to answer his call Smothers said she can “tell more people about God and tell them to bring more peace to people’s hearts.”

Micah Alcisto

Micah Alcisto from Honolulu told CNA “being a part of the history of the pope, and the first interaction of the pope in America, is truly surreal to me.” 

“Everything that he says is very heartwarming and touching.” Alcisto highlighted that the pope even “cracked a little bit of jokes.” He added: “I think it really broke the tension in the room. It grabbed everyone’s attention.”

“I never thought someone could speak so well and politely like him. And I think that’s what makes a difference in people’s lives is how you talk to others. … Everything about how he spoke to us, the lessons he gave, and how he related it all back to the Scripture and the Bible is definitely a one-of-a-kind experience,” Alcisto said.

The pope told the students that he is praying for them, which Alcisto said gave him goosebumps. “Just to hear him acknowledge us … means so much. I’ve never really felt that way from someone, especially coming from Pope Leo. Never would I have thought he would have said that to me personally,” he said.

Alcisto said he appreciated that the pope recognizes there is “a lot of authenticity in teens” like himself. Specifically, “our flame, our passion for religion and once you see a group of kids expressing their faith loudly, it makes everyone else want to do it,” he said.

“I think that’s what is special about us teens — we have the excitement, the flame with us to spread the word and the Gospel … It’s really a blessing that he got to actually acknowledge it to us. I think it will give us more excitement to spread the Gospel and the faith,” Alcisto said.

Ezequiel Ponce

Ezequiel Ponce, a high school senior from Downey, California, said he was surprisingly “super calm” when he was speaking with the pope. “I was taking in the information like if it was a personal mentor, like if he was right in front of me. I was listening. … I was really involved and engaged.”

“Something that definitely stood out to me was when he said to find someone that you can truly trust and be honest with, especially … finding a friend or family member that will help you grow your faith with God,” Ponce said.

“I was very excited to hear that he has us in our prayers, because I know that we’ve had him in our prayers,” Ponce said. “So it felt like we already built a connection. He already established himself. Honestly, that just strengthened my faith.”

As the group listened to the Holy Father, they “were all truly in it 100%,” Ponce said. “My main takeaway was that what I’m doing right now is good, because he talked about being involved in the Church. That’s how you can grow your faith. And that’s honestly what I’ve been doing.”

Christopher Pantelakis

“I was just out of breath. It was breathtaking,” said Christopher Pantelakis, a high school junior from Nevada. He said he “couldn’t really process” the experience as he was talking to Pope Leo.

While Pantelakis said he was incredibly nervous to speak to the Holy Father, he prayed beforehand to be at ease. “I was sitting there right before it was going to happen, and I was just like, ‘God, please help me. Please guide me through this.’’

As the conversations started, “I looked over at the people sitting next to me and all my friends that also talked, and it was so amazing to have this wonderful guy right here, the Holy Father, referring to us by our names and calling us his friends,” Pantelakis said. 

The pope “referred to us as his friends and he wasn’t just stating something for an interview or something. He was directly talking back to us. He was answering our questions, and he was engaged in our conversation. You could tell he cared.”

Pantelakis said he was thinking, “‘this is a genuine guy right here.’ It was just such an amazing thing to see.”

Pantelakis asked the Holy Father about technology and said he appreciated when the pope said “that no digital experience could replace a hug or can replace the feeling of a human being.” 

Elise Wing

Elise Wing, a high school senior from Waterloo, Iowa, highlighted how the pope understands the youth. “Even before I asked him: ‘How can young people be involved in that?’ He had already answered,” in the previous questions, she said. 

Pope Leo “said that preparing for the future is in the sacraments right now. We have to have a relationship with Jesus, and that’s through the sacraments and through communication with him to be able to come together as a full Church and tackle the future together,” she said.

“There’s so much that we need to prepare for in our hearts — spiritually and when we’re facing struggles with connection. We talked about AI and technology and mental health. Those struggles are something that are continuing. They’re going to be present in the future of the Church as well,” Wing said.

The conversation was “so personal,” Wing said. “Pope Leo said, ‘We’re looking for youth. We’re looking for you, not anybody else. You.’ The Holy Spirit was working because there was a very clear message.”

“There’s so much hope in the future. I think that Pope Leo really gives that message of hope in the way he responds to people and in how active he has been in sharing his perspectives,” she said.

Pope Leo discussed how “the Church doesn’t choose a political side,” Wing said. “We are divided by politics in America. It’s present. And even in high school, it’s something that you can’t ignore.” She said the topic is “very appreciated by the younger generations.” 

“The Church is above that,” Wing said. “It’s about Jesus, not about which side you’re on. I think that that unity and that peace of mind that he brings to a younger generation is something that is so profound.

“I was really struck by the way that everything the pope said reflected back to Jesus. It was not about him at all. He didn’t dwell on the struggles, but he pointed it all back to the Lord and how the Lord is working in each of us here, now, and in the future,” Wing said.

Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Nigerian Diocese of Makurdi in Benue state at a breakfast at Capitol Hill organized by Aid to the Church in Need, Jan. 30, 2024. / Credit: Peter Pinedo/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 21, 2025 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

A Nigerian Catholic bishop said U.S. military intervention is warranted at a Nov. 20 hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa.

The hearing took place just days after an attack on a Catholic boarding school in western Nigeria in which children were abducted from the school’s hostel.

“Nigeria is ground zero” for religious persecution, said the subcommittee’s chair, Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, at the hearing. “Make no mistake, these ongoing attacks are based on religion, and diverting attention from it denies what we have seen with our own eyes.”

Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi, Benue, Nigeria, told the panel via Zoom that the United States must follow Nigeria’s addition on the watch list with concrete action.

“Without quick intervention, Christianity risks elimination in parts of northern and Middle Belt Nigeria within a very short time,” the bishop said, noting that while designation as a country of particular concern (CPC) has “brought immense joy, hope, and spiritual resilience to communities under siege in Nigeria,” the Church cannot stop persecution alone. 

“​​It requires coordinated political, military, and humanitarian intervention,” the bishop said. “Mr. Chairman and members, the blood of Nigerian Christians cries out to you. We cannot afford to wait any longer.”

The hearing highlighted ongoing religious persecution of Christians in Nigeria by groups including Boko Haram and the Muslim extremist Fulani herdsmen, and examined how the U.S. State Department could apply pressure on the Nigerian government to tamp down religious persecution. 

President Donald Trump announced on Oct. 31 he would place Nigeria on the U.S. religious freedom violation watch list and designate it as a CPC.

Under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998, the U.S president must designate countries that engage in or tolerate “particularly severe violations of religious freedom” as CPCs. Violations include torture, prolonged detention without charges, and forced disappearence, according to the State Department. 

The bishop recounted ongoing attacks in Nigeria’s Middle Belt states by Fulani militia as well as in his own village of Aondona in Gwer West LGA, which resulted in the deaths of several of his relatives on May 22. 

Agnabe urged the U.S. to use all of the tools at its disposal to aid Nigeria and to “enact concrete actions,” including the use of targeted sanctions under the Magnitsky Act and the expansion of humanitarian aid for internal displacement camps. 

“We all know that inaction emboldens the extremists even more,” he said. 

Smith called for the U.S. government to place conditions on foreign aid and to provide humanitarian assistance to faith-based groups working to help displaced people in the Middle Belt region. He further called for the Trump administration to impose targeted sanctions under the Magnitsky Act, including visa bans and asset freezes on individuals and entities “responsible for these gross human rights abuses.” 

Smith cited statistics from Open Doors, which found that Nigeria has persecuted and slaughtered more Christians than anywhere in the world. Smith also said about 52,000 Christians have been targeted and killed, in addition to 34,000 moderate Muslims, since 2009. 

Rep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia, whom Trump charged with reporting to him about Nigeria, at the hearing called for the disarmament of Fulani militants in Nigeria.

Democratic House members said at the hearing that persecution in Nigeria is not limited to Christians and agreed that the Nigerian government has failed to halt attacks. 

Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-California, said she opposed Trump’s pledge to employ military action in Nigeria and cautioned against viewing ongoing violence in Nigeria as “merely religious.” She encouraged State Department officials to “use the [diplomatic] tools in our toolbox” before resorting to controlled strikes in the region. 

Ambassador Jonathan Pratt, the senior official leading the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, condemned the Nigerian’s government’s “failure to intervene” on behalf of persecuted Christians and said the Trump administration is working to “develop a plan to incentivize” action.  

Peter Flew, a lawyer and writer, says at a congressional briefing Nov. 20, 2025, that he collected evidence and witness statements regarding government persecution of the Apostolic Church in Armenia. / Credit: Photo courtesy of George Goss/Image Herder

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 21, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Human rights advocates told members of Congress that the Armenian government’s crackdown on Christians has included the unlawful detentions of clergy, ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections in June 2026.

Tensions have escalated between Nikol Pashinyan, the sitting prime minister of Armenia, and the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, reflecting the struggle over Armenia’s national identity and future direction. Government targeting of Christians has sparked concern for the loss of the country’s heritage as the oldest Christian nation in the world.

Peter Flew, a lawyer and writer, said at an event hosted by the National Democratic Alliance, the largest pro-Western center-right political party in Armenia, on Nov. 20 in the Rayburn House Office building that he collected evidence and witness statements regarding government persecution of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Flew cited Pashinyan’s remarks in a recent press conference in which he said the Armenian Apostolic Church “has no Catholicos,” a supreme patriarch and head of the church, saying Karekin II is illegitimate. 

“The attacks on this front must end,” he said, calling for the release of political prisoners. 

“I have hope that if we bring this issue to greater prominence,” Flew told CNA, “there will be engagement to say that we support Armenia, we support Armenia’s future and its peace.” 

Flew said: “The situation on the ground is such that anyone countering it is ending up in jail. Churches are not represented here [at the event] because they’ve been scared, and that’s the challenge.” 

“I think with the international communities, civil society, international at home, if we can come together and allow people to feel that there’s a critical mass raising their voices, that might do something,” Flew said. “But at the moment, you’re not going to see the church do much because it’s under siege.” 

Joel Veldkamp, speaking for Christian Solidarity International’s mission of campaigning for religious liberty and human dignity, echoed similar concerns for members of the church in Armenia.

“The way I see it, the fact that there are parliamentary elections coming up means that the repression is going to increase,” Veldkamp said. “The assault on the church has to be seen as part of this effort to cut off dissenting voices before the election comes.”

Veldkamp said the U.S. State Department has been largely silent on Pashinyan’s crackdown on the Armenian Apostolic Church with the exception of Asif Mahmood, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. 

“Prime Minister Pashinyan visions a future Armenia where the church has no social or political influence independent of the state,” Veldkamp said. “An Armenia with a severely weakened international identity is not an Armenia that’s going to be helpful to the U.S. for very long. If the president wants to avoid this outcome, it’s time for the U.S. government to break the silence.” 

Bishop Bulus Yohana Dauwa of Nigeria’s Diocese of Kontagora. In an interview with ACI Africa on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, Dauwa described the recent kidnapping of 25 schoolgirls is a tragic reminder that the country is no longer “safe for its children.” / Credit: ACI Africa/Catholic Diocese of Kontagora

ACI Africa, Nov 21, 2025 / 13:40 pm (CNA).

Bishop Bulus Yohana Dauwa of Nigeria’s Catholic Diocese of Kontagora has raised concern about the safety of children in the West African country following the Nov. 17 abduction of 25 schoolgirls from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi state.

In an interview with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, on Tuesday, Dauwa described the incident as a tragic reminder that the country is no longer “safe for its children.”

The bishop told ACI Africa that he had gathered eyewitness accounts of the attack from victims who endured horrific scenes for nearly five hours, from 1 a.m. until 6 a.m., on the day of the attack.

An eyewitness told Dauwa that trouble began on Sunday, Nov. 16, when a suspicious group of men believed to be soldiers entered the school premises. They entered the school at around 4 p.m. — about 15 of them — on motorcycles and a van, wielding guns.

The soldiers ransacked the place without telling anyone what was happening. Staff reportedly retired to their quarters after the soldiers left.

In the early hours of Monday morning, armed bandits stormed the school and began shooting into the air. The attackers proceeded to the residence of a staff member, Mallam Hassan Yakubu, whom they found praying. They shot him dead on the spot. After his wife refused to show them where the students were sleeping, the gunmen seized one of her daughters and forced her to lead them to the hostel.

The gunmen fired repeatedly for nearly five hours, from 1 a.m. until 6 a.m., and left before soldiers returned to the scene. 

It was only after the gunmen had fled that security personnel instructed teachers to conduct a roll call, during which the missing girls were discovered.

The school, a home to around 300 students and normally guarded by a combined team of soldiers and police, has been shut down indefinitely. It remains unclear whether the security personnel normally stationed there were present during the attack.

Dauwa described the abduction as part of an escalating wave of violence sweeping across Kebbi and parts of Niger state.

“It has never been this bad. People sleep in the bush because they have nowhere else to run,” he said.

He encouraged the parents of the abducted girls to remain prayerful and hopeful. 

“We are praying that God will guide and protect these girls wherever they are. The government must do everything possible to bring them back. All of them will come back alive,” he said.

Beyond the kidnappings, the 54-year-old bishop highlighted decades-long challenges Christian communities face in the region, including what he called “silent discrimination and persecution.” 

He said efforts by the Church to buy land, build parishes, or open schools are frequently resisted.

“Christians have been enduring what I call silent persecution. They stopped us from building our school and churches. They claimed our land was too close to their mosque, and every planting season, they would break the boundary,” Bulus said.

He revealed that in some instances, communities deliberately built mosques directly in front of donated church sites to frustrate Christian worship. 

“We suffered for more than 10 years trying to open one parish,” Dauwa told ACI Africa.

According to the bishop, a breakthrough eventually came after intense prayers to St. Padre Pio. The local emir, bedridden abroad, unexpectedly called and ordered that all withheld land documents be released to the Church. 

“It was a miracle,” Dauwa said, recalling the emir’s move, and added: “That very day, they gave us every paper they had denied us.”

The bishop described the security situation in his diocese as “terrible,” citing attacks across Kebbi, Magama, Mariga, and several communities along the River Niger.

“They entered one of our outstation churches, and everybody ran into the bush. There was no time to do anything,” he said.

Dauwa faulted government officials for focusing on political debates rather than taking decisive action to protect citizens. 

“If the government had done enough, we would not be where we are today. Instead of facing reality, they are debating whether Muslims or Christians are being killed. That is not the main issue,” the bishop said.

He warned that politicians appear more concerned about the 2027 elections than the ongoing violence. 

“They are more interested in 2027. Security is not their problem, but how to win the elections,” he said.

The bishop disclosed that he had recently met with the Niger state governor and urged him to tell the president that security must come before politics. 

“Let him do something about the insecurity. That is the best way he can campaign now,” Dauwa said.

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

Pope Leo XIV meets with the leadership and staff of Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s global charitable network operating in more than 200 countries, on Nov. 21, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2025 / 13:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Friday met with the leadership and staff of Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s global charitable network operating in more than 200 countries, asking them to be “pilgrims of hope” and “artisans of peace” in the world.

During the morning meeting held at the Vatican, the Holy Father thanked Caritas Internationalis president Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi and approximately 70 Caritas workers for their “steadfast service” within the Church and to people throughout the world.

“Caritas Internationalis has long been a luminous sign of the Church’s maternal love,” he said to the multinational delegation on Nov. 21. 

“The love we receive from Christ is never a private treasure but always a mission entrusted to our hands,” he added. “Love sends us forth; love makes us servants; love opens our eyes to the wounds of others.”

Repeating his papal predecessor’s desire that Caritas uphold Christ’s “preference for the poor, the least, the abandoned, and discarded,” Leo emphasized their mission, together with the “successor of Peter,” is to serve every person with dignity.

3 pillars that sustain the Church’s work in the world

“Your mission echoes the vision I shared in my first address to the diplomatic corps, where I spoke of the three pillars that sustain the Church’s work in the world: peace, justice, and truth,” he said. “These pillars are not abstract ideals.”

Besides asking Caritas to continue accompanying local churches and their various initiatives to support the poor, the pope also insisted they also work toward “strengthening the formation of lay leaders” and “safeguarding unity within your diverse organization.”

“The Church’s mission unfolds only when we walk together as companions along the way, allowing the Holy Spirit to shape our works of mercy,” he said during the private audience.

In 2022, Caritas Internationalis’ leadership was placed under temporary administration following a decree issued by Pope Francis to revise its statutes and regulations to “improve” its mission of charity and justice.

Before individually greeting each member of the delegation at the end of the meeting, Pope Leo entrusted Caritas’ work to “Mary, Mother of the Poor” and asked God to bless them with the “gifts of courage, perseverance, and joy.”  

“Quite sincerely, I thank you, each and every one of you, and the many people that you represent, those who work with you,” he said.

Before meeting with Pope Leo XIV on Friday, Kikuchi told EWTN News that the 162-member organization is more than a professional “goodwill” agency.

“We are the charitable arm of the Catholic Church,” he said in the Nov. 20 interview. “Why are we being charitable? Because we want to spread the Gospel message — the love of God.”

During the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, Kikuchi said Caritas’ “Turn Debt Into Hope” campaign is a response to Pope Francis’ call for the cancellation of developing nations’ international debt, outlined in the papal bull Spes Non Confundit.

“There are many countries who owe money to developed countries,” the cardinal said. “We want to turn debt into hope [and] to cancel that debt so people really have the hope to survive.”

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, meets Pope Leo XIV, along with a delegation of Ukrainian mothers, wives, and teenagers, at the Vatican on Nov. 21, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2025 / 12:40 pm (CNA).

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, joined a delegation of Ukrainian mothers, wives, and teenagers forcibly taken to Russia during the war with Ukraine who met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Friday. The audience highlighted ongoing humanitarian and diplomatic efforts to secure the return of abducted civilians.

In a statement from her Senate office, Klobuchar said: “Pope Leo is a true moral force for peace and justice and a champion for children around the world. It was an honor to meet him as part of our mission to bring home the Ukrainian children abducted by Russia and chart a path towards peace and healing for Ukraine.”

The senator added: “We cannot accept a world where children are abducted during wartime and used as hostages for negotiations. The United States must remain steadfast in our support for Ukraine’s fight for freedom, and we should all heed Pope Leo’s example of serving those in need, pursuing the common good, and calling for peace.”

According to the official Vatican News outlet, the meeting took place in the Apostolic Palace around midday and lasted about half an hour. Participants included young people who had been forcibly transferred to Russia and recently returned to Ukraine, along with their family members. The Vatican has put a priority on diplomatic efforts to return the children, starting under Pope Francis.

Klobuchar’s office noted that more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been confirmed as unlawfully deported or transferred to Russia or Russian-occupied territory.

Archbishop Dermot Farrell of the Dublin Archdiocese holds up the decree on Nov. 14, 2025, that Pope Leo XIV sent him granting his request that St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Dublin be designated as the cathedral Church of the archdiocese. / Credit: John McElroy/Dublin Archdiocese

Dublin, Ireland, Nov 21, 2025 / 12:09 pm (CNA).

There was immense joy among Catholics in Dublin following a decree from Pope Leo XIV formally designating St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral as the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Dublin, ending 200 years of the cathedral’s “temporary” status and giving the capital its first official Catholic cathedral since the Reformation.

Speaking at Mass in the cathedral to mark the bicentenary on Friday, Nov. 14, Archbishop Dermot Farrell of the Dublin Archdiocese told the faithful of Dublin: “I am pleased to announce that the Holy Father, Pope Leo, has consented to my request and has approved by decree that St. Mary’s be designated as the cathedral church of our archdiocese.”

Farrell added that the timing could not have been better as it coincided with the cathedral’s bicentenary celebrations.

“It is appropriate that this announcement should be made in the context of our celebration of the exemplary service which St. Mary’s has given to our diocese over 200 years, but also at a time when we are renewing our focus on our mission as a diocesan family, ‘Building Hope and Proclaiming Good News,’ affirming the faith of our people and reaching out to the city and beyond,” the archbishop said.

The following Sunday, Auxiliary Bishop Paul Dempsey of Dublin warmly welcomed the news and told the faithful gathered in St. Mary’s: “In the Catholic tradition, over the centuries, many beautiful places of worship have been built. It is important to return to why they were built. They are not built as tourist attractions or museums; they are places where the Church community gathers to worship the Lord. The beauty and aesthetics are there to help raise our minds and hearts to God and to draw us into the mystery that is God’s love,” he said.

St. Mary’s opened on Nov. 14, 1825. From around that time onward and following Catholic Emancipation, the Irish Church entered a period of strong growth. Many of the churches, parochial houses, and religious houses in Ireland were built in the middle of the 19th century symbolizing the strong presence of the Catholic Church in Irish society. 

“It continued for about 150 years or so. Then we saw the beginnings of change, something that has escalated over the last two to three decades. We find ourselves in a very different place today,” he said.

“There can be a temptation to look to the past with rose-tinted glasses when the churches were full, but as we know not all was well and serious issues needed to be faced. This process has been disconcerting for some who have a nostalgia for the past and want to go back to the way it was. However, nostalgia could be described as a looking into the past with the pain taken away.”

He continued: “So today, as we reflect upon 200 years of St. Mary’s we are left with a choice: Do we lament the past and wish for its return or seek ways of looking forward with hope-filled hearts, responding to the new questions we face in a complex and changing culture? When I reflect upon the life of Jesus in the Gospels, I see someone who was always looking forward! As his disciples we need to do the same, while always learning from the past.”

As the penal laws persecuting Catholics were relaxed in the later 18th century, the Pro Cathedral site was bought in 1803. The completed building was dedicated 200 years ago on Nov. 14, 1825, the feast day of St. Laurence O’Toole, who was canonized 800 years ago and who is the Dublin Archdiocese’s patron.

The Pro Cathedral was always a “provisional” cathedral; the intention was to build a “proper” one when time and money allowed. In the past, both the Church of Ireland and Catholic archbishops extended claims of ownership over St. Patrick’s and Christ Church — the city’s two other cathedrals that, since the Reformation, have not been Catholic places of worship.