Saint Paul Catholic Parish, Athens

Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Jan. 28, 2024. / Credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 29, 2025 / 18:52 pm (CNA).

News this week of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement sparked positive commentary from a wide cross-section of Catholics on social media, who anticipate a positive cultural shift from the marriage between the beloved pop star and Kansas City Chiefs tight end. 

“Expect a spike in marriage,” wrote marriage and family expert Brad Wilcox in a social media post. “Taylor and Travis put a ring on it.” 

“The Life of a Showgirl” singer announced her engagement to Kelce in an Aug. 26 Instagram post, captioned: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”

Wilcox, the author of “Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization,” noted in another post the engagement came on the same day as a new study highlighting the value of marriage for women today.

The study, “In Pursuit: Marriage, Motherhood, and Women’s Well-Being,” found married women with children make up the majority of women ages 25 to 55 who describe themselves as “very happy.”

Swift’s engagement “as a sort of left-leaning pop celebrity could create a space where it’s OK again for center-left Americans, both elite and ordinary Americans, to publicly embrace marriage,” Wilcox also told the Wall Street Journal.

“Marriage is a beautiful thing,” Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins chimed in, reacting to the news on social media. 

She added: “I hope Taylor Swift’s engagement inspires young women to see the joy and purpose in getting married, starting a family, and committing to one person for the rest of their lives.” In another post, Hawkins expressed confidence that “America is heading into its ‘get married and have babies era.’”

Defending the singer against negative reactions on social media to the news of her engagement, CEO and founder of the Classical Learning Test Jeremy Wayne Tate wrote in a post on X: “I’m disappointed with some conservatives today … Boy proposed to girl to enter into the most traditional relationship in human history … marriage.”

“That’s a beautiful thing,” he added. “Just say congratulations.”

LiveAction President Lila Rose also congratulated the happy couple on social media and praised their decision to get married. 

“Marriage is the best and tons of women look up to Taylor,” Rose said. “So happy to see her embracing it.”

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 29, 2025 / 18:13 pm (CNA).

After a man fired over a hundred bullets into a Minneapolis Catholic Church killing two children and injuring 17 others, thousands of mourners packed into an archdiocesan vigil to pray for the victims and their families with Archbishop Bernard Hebda and other clergy members.

“We know that there are a lot of other things that need to be done [and] we need to be able to address these issues in civic society, but what we do together tonight is to pray,” Hebda told grieving Catholics at the Academy of Holy Angels, just two miles from Annunciation Church, where the tragedy occurred.

“And we look for the words that are able to express inexpressible grief,” he said. “We look for those symbols that might bring some hope. … We come together in our trials and we trust that God will answer us, that he will hear our pain, that he will hear our prayers.”

Catholics across the country held their own vigils or offered prayers for the victims, as did many Protestants and people of other faiths.

Yet as communities sought comfort and a connection with God amid the tragedy, some figures in the media and even politicians went in the opposite direction. On social media and in public statements, those individuals derided prayer and dismissed its role in addressing suffering and societal ills.

“I’m tired of being told this is normal — and you should be too,” Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colorado, said in a post on X. “Thoughts and prayers aren’t going to do anything to fix this.”

Rep. Maxwell Frost, co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, echoed that sentiment, stating on X that “these children were probably praying when they were shot to death at Catholic school.”

“Don’t give us your [expletive] thoughts and prayers,” Frost added.

Jen Psaki, an MSNBC host who served in the administrations of former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, wrote on X that “prayer is not freaking enough.”

“Prayers [do] not end school shootings,” she added. “Prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back. Enough with the thoughts and prayers.”

Why Catholics turn to God in times of need

Over the past few days, Catholics and other Christians have pushed back on the negative view of prayer promoted by some lawmakers and members of the media.

In response to Psaki’s comments, Franciscan University explained through its X account that “prayer is not an escape from reality” but is rather “the very place we meet Christ, who himself was unjustly slain.”

“We will continue to pray, not because we are passive, but because we know only God can bring true justice, healing, and peace,” the university added. “Evil wants us to stop praying and to despair. We will not. We cling to Christ, who has conquered death.”

Franciscan University held a prayer vigil Thursday night for the victims, which about 500 students attended.

University President Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, told CNA: “It makes sense that Catholics would come together and pray given that [the shooting] took place at a Catholic church.” He added: “One of the things that Catholics do is we pray.”

The insinuation of anti-prayer rhetoric, Pivonka said, is that “prayer isn’t doing something.” He rejected that notion, saying “prayer has a great impact.” In the midst of tragedy, he noted that many people are looking to help and offering prayers for “the Lord’s peace to be with them [and] the Lord’s presence to be with them” is a “beautiful way to do that.”

Pivonka said he also prays for public officials, “that God would give them courage, that God would give them wisdom” to address political issues. He said Catholics should also engage society, the culture, and the political world.

He noted that Minnesota’s Catholic bishops had been asking state lawmakers to provide funds for security, which was ultimately not given. He said: “That’s a very active thing that they were trying to do.”

“Yes, we’re praying, but yes we’re doing actions to try to bring about this change,” Pivonka said.

Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, wrote in an op-ed for the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, that his diocese established a Mental Health Council to provide “guidance, responses, and resources to support those experiencing mental health issues as well as to their family members.”

He noted that Catholics can do “certainly, more than one thing,” such as security, mental health resources, engagement with public officials, and acts of charity and compassion.

“Above all, we can and must pray with daily fervency, calling out to the Lord, striving to remain close to him, and asking him to grant us all the peace only he can give,” Burbidge wrote.

Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, told Fox News Digital that “prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God, which strikes me as altogether appropriate precisely at times of great pain.”

“Prayer by no means stands in contrast to decisive moral action,” he said. “... This is not an either/or proposition.”

Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, also joined the conversation, posting on X in response to Psaki that any criticism of prayer is “bizarre.”

“We pray because our hearts are broken,” he wrote. “We pray because we know God listens. We pray because we know that God works in mysterious ways and can inspire us to further action. Why do you feel the need to attack other people for praying when kids were just killed praying?”

Over $1 million has been raised through a GoFundMe campaign for victims of the shooting at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025. / Credit: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Aug 29, 2025 / 12:21 pm (CNA).

Numerous online fundraising campaigns have raised well over $1 million to help support victims of the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting that claimed the lives of two children and injured approximately 20 people. 

Verified GoFundMe fundraisers showed over $1.2 million raised as of the morning of Aug. 29, with the funds supporting those injured in the shooting as well as the family of one of the deceased children. 

The mass shooting took place on Aug. 27 when a gunman opened fire on the parochial school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. The killer subsequently took his own life. 

The GoFundMe campaigns created in response to the tragedy include one in support of the Moyski-Flavin family, whose 10-year-old daughter, Harper, was one of the two children killed in the shooting. The other victim has been identified as 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel. 

The GoFundMe for Harper’s family says the funds will “be utilized by the family in honor of Harper’s memory with a portion donated in Harper’s honor to a nonprofit to be identified at a later date.” As of Friday morning it had raised about $80,000 of its $100,000 goal.

The largest campaign had raised roughly $530,000 of a $620,000 goal as of Friday morning to help support 12-year-old Sophia Forchas, who the fund said was “in critical condition in the ICU” after being shot during the attack.

The funds for that campaign will contribute to Sophia’s medical care, trauma counseling for her and her brother, family support services, and lost wages.

Other campaigns include fundraisers for 9-year-old Vivian St. Clair, 11-year-old Genevieve Bisek, and 13-year-old Endre Gunter.

‘Give your kids an extra hug’

In the hours after the shooting, family members of Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel identified them as the two children killed in the incident, which the FBI is investigating as a possible hate crime against Catholics.

“Because of [the shooter’s] actions, we will never be allowed to hold [Fletcher], talk to him, play with him, and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he was on the path to becoming,” the Merkel family said after the shooting.

“Please remember Fletcher for the person he was and not the act that ended his life,” the statement said. “Give your kids an extra hug and kiss today. We love you. Fletcher, you’ll always be with us.”

The Moyski-Flavin family, meanwhile, said they were “shattered, and words cannot capture the depth of our pain.” 

“No family should ever have to endure this kind of pain,” they said. “We urge our leaders and communities to take meaningful steps to address gun violence and the mental health crisis in this country.”

The other victims of the shooting are expected to survive, authorities have said, though several remain in serious condition.

Prior to carrying out the murders, the killer, identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, a man who struggled with his sexual identity, indicated anti-Christian motivation for the murders and an affinity for mass shooters, Satanism, antisemitism, and racism.

Time Magazine named Pope Leo XIV (pictured in the Paul VI Audience Hall) one of its Top 100 most influential thinkers concerning AI on Aug. 28, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 29, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Time Magazine included Pope Leo XIV in its 2025 list of the “World’s Most Influential People in Artificial Intelligence” on Thursday, Aug. 28, praising the pontiff’s focus on the ethical concerns related to the emerging technology.

The magazine listed the top 100 influential people in artificial intelligence (AI) in four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers, and Thinkers. Leo XIV is among the 25 most influential thinkers in the field, according to Time.

In a profile included in the magazine, Time technology correspondent Andrew Chow noted that Leo XIV chose his papal name, in part, based on the need for the Church to address ethical matters related to AI and wrote that the Holy Father is “already making good on his vow.”

When the pontiff met with the College of Cardinals two days after he assumed the papacy, he said he took the name in honor of Pope Leo XIII, who had “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.”

Leo XIII, who was pope from 1878 until 1903, published the encyclical Rerum Novarum, which discussed the needs of the working class amid the industrial revolution. The text eschewed both socialism and unrestrained market power, opting for cooperation between competing interests that is centered on the dignity of the human person.

The current pope, Leo XIV, said he took the name because of the “developments in the field of artificial intelligence,” which he noted pose “new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor.”

Time’s profile noted that the Vatican hosted the Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Corporate Governance in June, and stated: “Leo XIV’s keynote speech underlined AI’s potential as a force for good, particularly in health care and scientific discovery.”

“But AI ‘raises troubling questions on its possible repercussions on humanity’s openness to truth and beauty, on our distinctive ability to grasp and process reality,’ he added,” the profile stated, quoting the Holy Father. “And he warned that the technology could be misused for ‘selfish gain at the expense of others, or worse, to foment conflict and aggression.’”

Other figures on Time’s list include xAI founder Elon Musk, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, and Sen. Chris Murphy.

This is the third annual list published by Time focusing on the most influential people in AI.

“We launched this list in 2023, in the wake of OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT, the moment many became aware of AI’s potential to compete with and exceed the capabilities of humans,” Time Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs wrote regarding the publication of the list.

“Our aim was to show how the direction AI travels will be determined not by machines but by people — innovators, advocates, artists, and everyone with a stake in the future of this technology,” he added. “... This year’s list further confirms our focus on people.”

Police cruisers near Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, 2025, following a mass shooting that killed two children and injured 17 others, 14 of them children. / Credit: Chad Davis, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 29, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The shooter who killed two children and injured 17 others at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27 voiced some regret over his 'gender transition' efforts when he was a minor, according to handwritten notes he displayed in a YouTube video before the attack.

Robin Westman, who was named “Robert” at birth, legally changed his name when he was 17 years old to reflect his self-identified status as a transgender girl. Court documents show that his mother signed off on the name change.

Westman published videos to YouTube shortly before the attack, which contained written notes, some of which were in English and others using the Cyrillic alphabet. Several Slavic languages use the Cyrillic script, but Westman was not writing in any of them. Rather, he tried to match the sounds of the Cyrillic letters to form English-language words when read aloud.

According to a partial translation published by the New York Post, Westman wrote: “I regret being trans,” and added: “I wish I was a girl. I just know I cannot achieve that body with the technology we have today. I also can’t afford that.”

The Post’s translation states that Westman also wrote he wished “I never brainwashed myself,” but kept his long hair “because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans.”

“I can’t cut my hair now as it would be an embarrassing defeat, and it might be a concerning change of character that could get me reported,” he wrote. “It just always gets in my way. I will probably chop it on the day of the attack.”

According to the translation, Westman also wrote: “I know I am not a woman but I definitely don’t feel like a man.”

Jason Evert: Westman did not get ‘mental health care he needed’

Chastity Project Founder Jason Evert, who authored “Male, Female, Other? A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender,” told EWTN News that he believes Westman “was not receiving … the mental health care that he needed.”

Evert noted that many people who struggle with gender dysphoria often suffer from other mental health conditions, such as major depressive disorder or borderline personality disorder, or have experienced bullying, isolation, and social distress.

“If they’re being told, ‘Well, hey, you need to change your outfit or change your name, and you’ll feel at home in your own body,’ … it’s depriving the young people to have opportunities to live in their bodies and get the clinical intervention that they actually need to receive,” he said. 

Catholic teaching

In 2024, the Vatican issued the declaration Dignitas Infinita, which teaches that “the soul and the body both participate in [human] dignity” and the body “is endowed with personal meanings, particularly in its sexed condition.” It adds that “sex-change intervention … risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”

In contrast, Evert noted that doctors in the United States primarily follow the “Dutch protocol,” which is to “affirm” a person’s self-asserted transgender identity and then provide minors with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and eventually transgender surgeries. However, recent studies have shown that most children outgrow transgender inclinations and that surgeries do not solve their mental health issues.

“It’s not working,” he added. “We’re actually contributing to a mental illness instead of actually treating it. We’re depriving these young people of opportunities and strategies to learn how to live in their bodies. And instead of that, we’re giving them hormones and telling them that they can hurt their body in order to be their authentic selves.”

Yet, Evert urged caution against suggesting that Westman’s gender dysphoria was the reason for the attack, emphasizing that “most people who do experience gender dysphoria would never commit an atrocity like this and most people who have committed school shootings do not identify as trans.”

“I think it’s careful that we at least explain that, so as to not stir up animosity amongst young people who might be struggling with their sense of sexual identity,” Evert said.

What we know about the shooter’s motive

Police have not identified a clear motive up to this point, but FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the agency is investigating the tragedy as “an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.”

Videos Westman recorded before the shooting demonstrate some anti-Catholic motivation.

The videos show that Westman had attached an image of Jesus Christ wearing the crown of thorns to the head of a human-shaped shooting target. He also wrote anti-Christian messages on his guns and loaded magazines, which included “Where’s your God?” and a comment that mocked the words of Christ by writing “take this all of you and eat” on a rifle.

Some of the drawings also appeared Satanic, including an inverted pentagram and an inverted cross.

Other messages showed hatred toward Jewish people, Black people, Hispanic people, Indian people, and Arab people. The messages also included threats against President Donald Trump.

Some of Westman’s writings highlight a struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts. He also apologized to his family for the trouble his attack would cause them but made clear he was not sorry to the children he wanted to murder. He showed a strong affinity for mass murderers.

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CNA Staff, Aug 29, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news in the United States:

Illinois man faces homicide charge after allegedly poisoning girlfriend, unborn child with abortion pill

A 31-year-old Illinois man has been arrested for homicide of an unborn child after allegedly poisoning his girlfriend with abortion pills.

Police in Bloomington, Illinois, arrested Emerson Evans after police found the girlfriend in a bathroom with what appeared to be a human fetus in the toilet on Aug. 22, according to court documents.

The girlfriend, who was seven weeks pregnant, told police that the boyfriend had told her he wanted her to have an abortion, but she did not want an abortion. Evans has been charged with intentional homicide of an unborn child after allegedly poisoning his girlfriend and their child.

With the rise of the abortion pill, similar cases have been documented across the United States. In Texas this summer, two men are being charged for poisoning the mothers of their children with the abortion pill, leading to the deaths of their unborn children.

Illinois governor mandates that chemical abortion pills be offered on public college campuses

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law mandating that public universities offer chemical abortion and contraceptives this school year.

The new law requires all public colleges to offer abortion pills on their on-campus pharmacies and at student health centers. Pritzker also expanded shield laws protecting abortionists from laws in pro-life states.

On-campus student activism prompted the abortion pill mandate on college campuses, according to a local report. Recent graduates of a local public college testified in support of the bill after a student referendum question brought the issue to their campus.

Local bishop calls allegations that public school-funded student abortions ‘deeply troubling’

A local bishop has voiced concern over a report that a Virginia public school facilitated and funded abortion procedures for students.  

The report, Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington said during a recent podcast, is “deeply troubling.”

Staff at Centreville High School, part of the Fairfax County Public Schools system, arranged abortions for two pregnant high school girls in 2021, according to a report by Walter Curt Dispatch Investigations from earlier this month.

According to the investigative report, one of the girls, who was 17 years old at the time, had an abortion after a school official brought her to an abortion facility.

“How terrible that the minors may have been advised or even provided funds to end the life of a child,” Burbidge said. 

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is investigating the report as state law protects minors from having abortions without parental consent. 

“The governor has rightly called for a full investigation, and we will await the outcome,” Burbidge said. 

Texas ‘Women and Child Protection Act’ closing abortion pill loophole advances

Texas lawmakers are advancing a bill to stop mail-order abortion pills amid the illegal abortion pill crisis.

The bill would enable Texas to shut down abortion pill companies that are sending abortion pills to Texas, where the law protects unborn children from abortion in most cases. 

The bill would also enable women who are harmed by illegal abortions to sue, according to Texas Right to Life.   

The Women and Child Protection Act, which was put forward by state Rep. Jeff Leach and sponsored by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, will head to the House floor next.  

Texas Right to Life said in a statement that abortion businesses “ship lethal pills into Texas illegally from other states and countries — to the tune of at least 19,000 orders of abortion drugs each year.” 

New Jersey pregnancy centers challenge state attorney general investigation 

Five New Jersey pregnancy centers filed an opening brief in the U.S. Supreme Court alleging that their state attorney general targeted them with an “unconstitutional investigation” in which the government demanded personal information of donors and other confidential documents. 

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, the collective of five faith-based pregnancy centers, challenged state Attorney General Matthew Platkin for issuing a subpoena demanding that First Choice disclose names, addresses, places of employment, and phone numbers of donors as well as up to 10 years of internal confidential documents, according to a press release. 

The opening brief also alleges that Platkin made an attempt “to manufacture procedural roadblocks to evade federal court review” and displayed an “undisguised animosity” toward the pregnancy centers.

Aimee Huber, executive director of First Choice, said in a statement that the attorney general has been “pursuing a personal and political vendetta” against them for more than two years.

Senior Counsel Erin Hawley of Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal nonprofit arguing on behalf of First Choice, added that the attorney general was “targeting” the pregnancy center.

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Washington D.C., Aug 29, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The 2025 EWTN Catholic Radio Conference has drawn hundreds of attendees to Washington, D.C., this week to discuss and learn more about Catholic radio as an evangelization tool.

During the conference, attendees have had the opportunity “to network with each other, learn things from each other, and discuss things that have worked, and things that haven’t worked, in Catholic radio,” EWTN Radio General Manager Jack Williams told CNA. 

Among the attendees, Williams said about 65 are associated with affiliate stations who carry the network’s radio programming in different parts of the country. He noted that many of them didn’t necessarily start off their careers in radio but are people who “heeded Mother Angelica’s call.”

On a live EWTN broadcast in 1995, hosted by network foundress Mother Angelica, “she put out the call that if anybody had, or could procure, an AM or FM radio station she would give them the programming for free. And that’s essentially what we’ve been doing since 1996,” Williams said. “By the end of that year, she had six people; now we have over 440 affiliates around the country.”

The conference always starts with a retreat day, and this year the group gathered for their retreat at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The days following the retreat have included workshops and professional development opportunities on various topics.

The topics discussed are tailored to what the attendees want to learn more about based on a sampling of affiliate groups that EWTN calls the “Affiliate Advisory Team.” They “meet on a monthly basis and talk about various issues facing the radio world in general, and Catholic radio in particular,” Williams explained.

“We use feedback from that group to help plan the topics for the workshops and the things that we think will best suit the operators that will help to propel them forward.”

Along with the workshops, the conference welcomed various speakers, including EWTN Chairman of the Board and CEO Michael Warsaw and EWTN News Vice President and Editorial Director Matthew Bunson.

During his Aug. 28 keynote address, Bunson, who hosts the network’s weekly “Register Radio” program, reviewed the relationship various popes have had with radio and how their work can serve as a guide for radio professionals.

The popes have “understood that radio had a role to evangelize, to proclaim Christ Jesus, to lead a profound cultural service, a service to truth, to justice, and to human dignity,” Bunson noted.

The popes’ work in radio dates back to Pope Pius X in 1931 when he began his broadcast that allowed him to speak “directly to the faithful across continents.”

Then in 1957, Pope Pius XII continued to “highlight the importance” of religious radio. Bunson said: “He exhorted bishops to increase and enhance programs, deal with Catholic affairs, and emphasize the need for well-trained priests and laity in the fields, seeing radio as a new means to fulfill Christ’s command to preach the Gospel.”

Pius XII “underscored a fundamental principle” that technology, when ethically used, can be “a powerful ally in the service of faith,” Bunson explained. 

“In the Second Vatican Council’s important 1964 document about the means of social communications, the famous document Inter Mirifica, the bishops made sure to include radio in the list of the great forms of expression that have to be put to use by the Church ... [to] reach and influence not only individuals but a whole human society.”

Pope Paul VI “expressed even more vividly the power of radio. He wrote: ‘TV and radio, they have given society new patterns of communication. They have changed ways of life ... broadcasters have access to the minds and the hearts of everyone.’”

Pope John Paul II “further articulated Catholic radio’s mission, stating that it is entrusted with the task of ‘proclaiming the Christian message with freedom, fidelity, and efficacy.’”

Bunson said Catholic radio and other forms of Catholic social communication “have an obligation to understand the real media landscape.” It “requires continuous adaptation, updating, solid human, cultural, professional, and spiritual formation to the community.”

By reflecting on the popes, those working in Catholic radio can learn “to have clarity in self-identity, to be as professional as possible, [and] to follow the call of the Second Vatican Council to utilize all the means of social communications that are before us.”

Bunson added: “Authentic Catholic radio … must be built on from the ground up with a strong Catholic identity.”

A 30-centimeter (11.8-inch) plaster cross was unearthed in an ancient monastery on Sir Bani Yas Island about 106 miles southwest Abu Dhabi, ACI MENA reported. / Credit: Courtesy of Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 28, 2025 / 17:37 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of Catholic world news from the past week that you might have missed:

Ancient cross discovered in Abu Dhabi points to deep Christian roots in region

The Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, has announced a new archaeological discovery: a 30-centimeter (11.8-inch) plaster cross unearthed in an ancient monastery on Sir Bani Yas Island about 106 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi, ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, reported.

The artifact was uncovered during excavation work that began earlier this year. According to the Abu Dhabi Media Office, the cross was found in the courtyard of one of the monastery’s houses. The cross is believed to date back to the seventh or eighth century A.D. Its eastern-style design resembles crosses found in Iraq and Kuwait, reflecting the historic connections of the Eastern Church and its spread across the gulf in the early centuries of Christianity.

Church in Thailand equips seminarians to minister to the Deaf 

The Catholic Church in Thailand has launched a training program for seminarians at Fatima Minor Seminary in the Archdiocese of Thare-Nongseng to help strengthen their ability to minister to the Deaf, according to Vatican News.

The program kicked off with training sessions on Aug. 22–24 led by Father Peter Bhuravaj Searaariyah, director of pastoral ministry for the Deaf of the Diocese of Chanthaburi and of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand. The sessions included an introduction to religious sign language terminology, participation in a Thai Sign Language (TSL) Mass, and the recitation of the Liturgy of the Word in sign language, Vatican News reported.

Nigerian priest: Surge in child trafficking a ‘national emergency’ 

A Nigerian Catholic priest is sounding the alarm over the growing trafficking of secondary school children — most often young girls who live in poverty across the west African nation who are taken during and after school hours.

“This is a national emergency. We are dealing with a crisis that threatens the future of our children and the soul of our nation,” Father George Ehusani told ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, in an interview on Monday. “When teenagers who should be in classrooms are lured, moved, and exploited by criminal networks, the entire community is diminished.”

Armenian Catholics launch website for St. Maloyan’s canonization

The Armenian Catholic Patriarchate of Cilicia has announced the official launch of a website dedicated to the upcoming canonization of Blessed Ignatius Maloyan, ACI MENA reported Thursday. 

The site provides detailed information for the faithful who wish to participate in the celebration, including visa instructions for Lebanese citizens and comprehensive travel packages covering flights, accommodations, and local transportation. The platform also offers specialized services for the Armenian diaspora to facilitate participation in this historic event at the heart of the universal Church.

Climate activists convene in Kenya for interfaith prayer against fossil fuel expansion

Climate activists and faith leaders from across Africa gathered in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, on Aug. 24 for an interfaith prayer session to push for an end to fossil expansion on the world’s second-largest continent.

Convened by the continental Laudato Si’ Movement at the Holy Family Basilica, the prayer vigil was grounded in prayer and moral witness, ACI Africa reported. The movement’s programs manager, Ashley Kitisya, told ACI Africa: “Our goal is to increase moral and spiritual pressure on decision-makers to halt fossil fuel expansion and instead invest in a just and sustainable transition.”

Summit cross in Swiss Alps uprooted in act of vandalism

In the Swiss Alps, a cross and a statue of Mother Mary were torn out of the ground in an act of vandalism, CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported earlier this week. The cross and statue were located in the Basòdino mountain, the second-highest peak in the canton of Ticino.

Roberto Iori, who runs a mountain hut in the area, said: “What also torments me is the fact that the perpetrator of this abominable act probably passed our hut and maybe even slept here. The cross and the Madonna were symbols for mountain lovers … It could be religiously motivated vandalism. It’s not the first time someone has destroyed religious symbols on a summit.”

British MP: Catholic support for Palestinians in Gaza ‘extremely powerful’ 

Independent British member of Parliament Shockat Adam said in an interview with Crux this week that support from the Catholic Church for people in Gaza has been “extremely powerful” and emphasized the Church’s unique role to play in ending the conflict.

“The Vatican has been doing it, but other Christian denominations and even Muslim leaders haven’t been as vociferous and clear on this,” Adam said. “The Vatican has a role to play, have played a role, and should continue to do so … The leadership of the Church addressing parliamentarians and legislators and world leaders is a really powerful avenue of making change.”

7 Christians jailed after Hindu groups say they violated anti-conversion laws 

A group of seven Christians in the Uttar Pradesh state in India have been jailed following accusations made by “Hindu vigilante groups” that they violated the northern Indian state’s anti-conversion laws by “converting gullible people to Christianity,” according to a UCA News report.

The arrests took place on Aug. 24 in three separate locations where Sunday prayer services were taking place. Six prayer services were interrupted in total that same day, an anonymous church leader told UCA.

Sabrina Steffans displays her newly decorated school parking space. / Credit: Courtesy of First Liberty Institute

CNA Staff, Aug 28, 2025 / 15:53 pm (CNA).

A rising senior at a high school in Grand Island, New York, Sabrina Steffans, is now allowed to decorate her school parking space with Christian messages after her high school reversed course after initially rejecting her faith-based artwork.

Grand Island High School allows seniors to paint their parking spots “to encourage students to express themselves through positive artwork, to beautify the campus, to build school spirit, and to create a new and exciting radiation to support senior class activities and events.”

When Steffans, a Christian who leads a Bible club at her school, proposed three drawings for her parking space, the school rejected the first two, which had Christian themes.

Steffans said the school approved the third design, “which had no Bible verses, no crosses, or anything.”

Steffans said after the school rejected the second proposed drawing, “that’s when we kind of decided to take charge and move forward with this [legal action].”

Steffans hired lawyers from First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit religious liberty law firm, who wrote a demand letter to the Grand Island school district insisting she had a constitutionally-protected right to freely express her religious beliefs at school.

Days later, attorneys for the school district responded to the demand letter stating that Sabrina could proceed with her original design.

“We are pleased that the school district changed course and will allow Sabrina to truly express her deeply held beliefs in her design,” said Keisha Russell, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute. “The First Amendment protects students’ private expressions of faith in public schools.”

In response to the threatened lawsuit, Grand Island Central School District Superintendent Brian Graham issued a statement last week saying the district takes “seriously our responsibility to uphold constitutional principles, including the First Amendment.”

He continued: “While we strongly dispute any assertion that our policies or decisions violated the rights of any student, the board of education and district leadership, after careful consultation with legal counsel, have decided that the student in question will be permitted to proceed with her original senior parking space design.”

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, New York, where a federal court accepted the diocese’s $176 million settlement plan. / Credit: debra millet/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Aug 28, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

A federal bankruptcy court has accepted the Diocese of Syracuse, New York’s massive $176 million abuse settlement plan, Bishop Douglas Lucia said this week.

The decision comes after a yearslong negotiation process between the diocese and victims of clergy abuse as well as between the diocese and insurers that will pay into the settlement fund.

Lucia said in an Aug. 27 letter that the diocese will contribute $100 million to the fund, as diocesan leaders first announced in 2023.

Fifty million dollars will come from the diocese itself, with $45 million from parishes and $5 million from “other Catholic entities” associated with the Syracuse Diocese.

The remaining $76 million will be contributed by diocesan insurance companies, the bishop said.

Further “nonmonetary items” in the agreement include provisions such as strengthening diocesan safe environment policies.

The diocese initiated the bankruptcy process in 2020. In his letter, Lucia thanked his fellow Catholics “who throughout these five years have prayed for this resolution and for those whose hearts were broken by the betrayal that came at the hands of Church members.”

“Together I now pray we will grow ever more as the body of Christ in this part of the world community,” he said.

The Syracuse decision comes amid a wave of high-value abuse settlement payouts from U.S. dioceses, including throughout New York.

Abuse victims in New York last month agreed to a massive settlement from the Diocese of Rochester, which is set to pay $246 million to survivors of clergy abuse there.

The Diocese of Buffalo, New York, earlier this year agreed to pay out a $150 million sum as part of its own abuse settlement.

The largest diocesan-level bankruptcy settlement in U.S. history thus far has been from the Diocese of Rockville Centre — also in New York — which last year agreed to pay $323 million to abuse victims.

The largest Church abuse payout total in U.S. history thus far has been at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which last year agreed to a near-$1 billion payment to abuse victims.