St. Andrew Catholic Church

“Carlo Acutis, God’s Influencer” brings to life the story of the Church’s first millennial saint who used his passion for technology and the internet to spread his love for the Eucharist and his Catholic faith to people around the world. / Credit: CCC of America

CNA Staff, Sep 5, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

A new animated movie depicting the life of Carlo Acutis will be released on Sept. 7 — the same day the young boy, beloved by Catholics around the world, will be declared a saint by the Catholic Church.

“Carlo Acutis, God’s Influencer” brings to life the story of the Church’s first millennial saint who used his passion for technology and the internet to spread his love for the Eucharist and the Catholic faith to people around the world.

The animated film offers children and their families a way to learn about the life of Acutis, depicting his perseverance in faith and the importance of placing one’s talents in the service of God and others.

The film was made by CCC of America in association with the Augustine Institute and will be available for streaming on Formed, a digital platform run by the Augustine Institute that provides faith-informed content for Catholics.

The movie will join several other films on Acutis including documentaries such as EWTN’s “Blessed Carlo Acutis — From London to the World” and “I Am With You — A Documentary on Carlo Acutis,” which can be streamed on EWTN OnDemand, as well as a book by CNA Vatican Reporter Courtney Mares called “Blessed Carlo Acutis – A Saint in Sneakers.”

Juan Carlos Carredano, the executive producer of the film, told CNA in an interview that CCC of America has been creating films based on the lives of the saints since 1983 and they “continually receive requests from people to share more stories.”

“That is why we decided to bring Carlo Acutis’ amazing story to the new generations,” he said. 

“Today, it is more important than ever to share real stories about people who made a difference — true saints and heroes who changed the world [and] recent stories that teenagers can relate to,” he added. “And who better than Carlo to show us that sainthood is for everyone?”

“Carlo is transforming thousands of hearts through his life and testimony, which revealed the true presence of God. I believe that is what makes him a real influencer,” he said. 

“His witness is an urgent call for each of us to share the good news, to reflect the beauty of the Gospel and of creation, to serve the truth, and to ‘live as originals, not photocopies,’ as Carlo said.”

Carredano said he hopes viewers “will receive the key messages that [Carlos’ mother] Mrs. Antonia Acutis recommended for this film: a true belief that Christ is present in the Eucharist, a deep love and closeness to Our Lady, the importance of living in a state of grace, and the call to love everyone — especially those in need.”

null / Credit: Sora Shimazaki/Pexels

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 5, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

A federal court has blocked the government from enforcing an abortion accommodation rule against the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and other Catholic entities as a lawsuit over the provision plays out. 

The abortion rule, finalized by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in April 2024, forces employers to provide accommodations for workers to obtain or recover from abortions, surrogacy, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, all three of which conflict with Catholic teaching.

Under the Sept. 3 court order issued by Judge David Joseph, the EEOC is prohibited from enforcing the final rule in any way that would force the bishops and the other Catholic entities to accommodate actions that are “in violation of their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The order states that the EEOC cannot launch investigations against the bishops or the other entities based on a refusal to provide accommodations for procedures that conflict with Catholic teaching.

The block will remain in place until the lawsuit against the EEOC challenging the rule concludes.

Daniel Blomberg, vice president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and lead attorney for the bishops in the case, told CNA the court order is in line with what the bishops had requested.

He said the EEOC had previously “agreed to not enforce the mandate” on the bishops and other Catholic entities but had not agreed to the court-ordered injunction. He said the injunction requested by the bishops and provided by the court “memorializes the agreement.”

CNA reached out to the EEOC for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The bishops’ lawsuit continues

The EEOC imposed this rule as part of the regulatory framework for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, adopted by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden in 2024.

The law itself, which makes no mention of abortion, requires employers to provide workplace accommodations to women for limitations caused by pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions.

Under the Biden-era regulations that enforce the law, the EEOC determined that related medical conditions included “having or choosing not to have an abortion.” The regulation only provided religious exemptions on a case-by-case basis, which would be determined after accommodation requests were denied.

Blomberg pointed out that the bishops “were very supportive” of the law itself because they believed it would “protect [pregnant women] and lead to healthier moms and healthier babies.” 

Yet the EEOC “turned that protection for pregnant women into a mandate for abortion,” he said, and the bishops and many other organizations were forced to file lawsuits to maintain religious liberty protections threatened by the subsequent regulation.

The lawsuit to determine the legality of the mandate is still ongoing. The bishops’ challenge to the abortion accommodation rule is in front of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The bishops’ challenge to accommodation rules related to surrogacy, IVF, contraception, and other practices that conflict with Catholic teaching are in front of a federal district court. 

Blomberg said the bishops are “challenging the understanding that the [law] itself requires any sort of accommodation for abortion.” 

“We think that’s completely not right,” he said.

If the law were enforced, Blomberg explained religious workplaces would need to change their internal policies. He noted that the rule would also prevent religious employees from promoting pro-life values in the workplace because “there can’t be any sort of pressure or coercion, even by other employee speech in the ministry.”

A violation would be treated the same as any other employment discrimination case, such as through court-ordered injunctions or forcing employers to pay monetary damage for refusing to accommodate abortions.

The Sept. 3 court order expands on a previous court order that had only blocked the EEOC from enforcing the abortion accommodation against the bishops when the abortion is considered elective. 

Under the previous order, the bishops would have still needed to accommodate abortions when justified by medical conditions that included “minor” anxiety, depression, nausea, and changes in hormone levels caused by the pregnancy.

Under the current order, however, bishops are now exempt from accommodating all abortions and other practices that violate Catholic teaching.

The bishops, Blomberg said, “are protected for the time being.”

Pope Leo XIV meets young adults from the Mediterranean Youth Council in the Hall of the Consistory in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on Sept. 5, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Sep 5, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Real peace, often used as a slogan, begins in our own hearts and communities, Pope Leo XIV told a group of young adults from the Mediterranean region at the Vatican on Friday.

In a speech in both Italian and English on Sept. 5, the pope called young people the “generation that envisions a better future and chooses to build it. You are the sign of a world that does not give in to indifference and complacency,” he added, “but rolls up its sleeves and works to transform evil into good.”

Leo met with around 50 members of the Mediterranean Youth Council, which was founded in 2022 and includes young adults from European and Middle Eastern countries bordered by the Mediterranean Sea.

“Peace is on the agenda of international leaders, it is the subject of global discussions, but sadly, it often gets reduced to a mere slogan,” the pontiff said. “What we need is to cultivate peace in our own hearts and in our relationships, to let it blossom in our daily actions, to work for reconciliation in our homes, our communities, our schools and workplaces, in the Church, and among the Churches.”

Being a peacemaker is not easy, Leo said, and he denounced the use of religious traditions to justify violence instead of bringing peace, fraternity, care for creation, and openness to others. 

“We need to reject these forms of blasphemy that dishonor God’s holy name, and to do so by the way we live our lives,” he underlined. “We are called to cultivate prayer and spirituality, together with action, as sources of peace and points of encounter between traditions and cultures.”

“For believers, the future is not one of walls and barbed wire but one of mutual acceptance,” he added.

The pope encouraged the young people to not give up, even if someone does not understand them or what they are working for: “St. Charles de Foucauld said that God also uses headwinds to bring us to port.”

“Do not be afraid: Be seeds of peace where the seeds of hate and resentment grow; be weavers of unity where polarization and enmity prevail; be the voice of those who have no voice to ask for justice and dignity; be light and salt where the flame of faith and the taste for life are dying out,” he said.

Father Edwin Román (left) with Bishop Silvio Báez. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Edwin Román

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 5, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Father Edwin Román talked about his life in exile in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, expressing his hopes for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which is suffering persecution at the hands of the dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.

The priest, who is now parochial vicar at St. Agatha Parish in Miami, noted that Aug. 3 marked four years since he left Nicaragua to go into exile for being critical of the dictatorship.

“My plane ticket was for 10 days [abroad], but due to direct threats from Rosario Murillo and a pro-government journalist threatening to imprison me  — and after being the victim of much harassment — traffic stops on the highway — and efforts to defame me, I decided to stay and apply for asylum,” he said.

“Since then, I’ve been at St. Agatha Parish, welcomed by the pastor, Father Marcos Somarriba, and the community. I’ve also been supporting neighboring parishes,” said the 65-year-old priest, who was ordained Dec. 12, 1990, for the Archdiocese of Managua.

Somarriba recently spoke with the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and expressed his concerns about the persecution of Catholics in Nicaragua and the Trump administration announcing it will deport thousands of his fellow Nicaraguans who have been in the United States for decades.

“My people, the Nicaraguan people, are dumbfounded. They don’t know where to go, what to do, and I think the regime is not going to be open to this. They disappear people; they put people in jail; they exile people and don’t let them come back into the country,” the priest said.

Parochial vicar at St. Agatha’s

On Aug. 17, Román thanked Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami on X for appointing him as parochial vicar of St. Agatha, the church where Bishop Silvio Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua who went into exile in 2019, also celebrates Mass.

As parochial vicar, Román explained, he supports “evangelization with parish groups and lay leadership, celebrates the sacraments, assists in caring for the faithful in the office, and visits the sick.”

“It has been very difficult to adapt. The pain remains of not having said goodbye to my parish, nor the faithful to me, their pastor. Thank God, we have found priests and bishops who have opened the doors of their parishes to us. Bishops who, like good shepherds, have listened to us and opened their hearts, as Archbishop Thomas Wenski did for me,” the priest shared.

The persecuted Catholic Church in Nicaragua

When asked what he knows about the current persecution of the Catholic Church in his homeland by the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, Román emphasized that “the Catholic faithful haven’t stopped going to Mass, filling their churches during Holy Week, the feast day of [the parish’s] patron saint, and Sundays. People continue to pray and have not lost hope for better times.”

All of this continues, the priest pointed out, despite “the harassment, parishes being infiltrated, prohibitions against the Prayer of the Faithful at Mass, and requirements that priests send their homilies to police stations for review. Processions and prayer group meetings in homes are also prohibited.”

The dictatorship of Ortega and Murillo in Nicaragua has banned more than 16,500 processions and acts of piety in recent years and has perpetrated 1,010 attacks against the Catholic Church.

This is all detailed in the seventh installment of the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church” by exiled lawyer and researcher Martha Patricia Molina, which was released on Aug. 27.

Pope Leo XIV and Nicaragua

Pope Leo XIV received on Aug. 23 at the Vatican three Nicaraguan bishops in exile: Báez; Bishop Isidoro Mora of Siuna; and Bishop Carlos Herrera of Jinotega, president of the Nicaraguan Bishops’ Conference.

Báez recounted on X that he, his brother bishops, and Pope Leo XIV spoke “at length about Nicaragua and the situation of the Church in particular.”

The Holy Father, the prelate said, encouraged him “to continue with my episcopal ministry and confirmed me as auxiliary bishop of Managua. I sincerely thank him for his fraternal welcome and his encouraging words.”

Regarding the meeting between the bishops and Leo XIV, Román told ACI Prensa that “the pope expressed his closeness to the Nicaraguan people and to the Church. This visit has undoubtedly been a very encouraging one for us.”

“The pope is familiar with our Latin American reality” considering his many years as a missionary and bishop in Peru, Román said.

How can the faithful help the Church in Nicaragua?

Román told ACI Prensa that “one day someone told me: ‘Find a benevolent bishop.’ I have already found that bishop” in the archbishop of Miami, who has also warmly welcomed Báez.

“I thank the many Nicaraguans and people of other nationalities who have welcomed me and made me part of their families,” the priest added.

Asked how the faithful can help Catholics in his homeland, the priest responded: “By praying for this pilgrim Church in Nicaragua, including us in the prayers of the faithful in all parishes, and that Catholic and fair-minded media continue to denounce the injustice experienced by the Nicaraguan people and the persecution of the Church.”

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

Father Rony Salim, chancellor of the Syriac Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul, shared with ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, that the bishop has called Qaraqosh the “City of Hosanna” due to its uniquely spirited celebration marked by hymns, prayers, and massive crowds of worshippers. / Credit: Ismael Adnan/ACI MENA

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

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

Syriac Catholic archpriest attacked in Syria

Tensions in Syria deepened this week after a brutal assault on Archpriest Michel Naaman of the Syriac Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Homs. Returning home one evening, Naaman was ambushed by two masked men who beat him, threatened him at gunpoint, and stripped him of his gold cross and cash, ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, reported Thursday.

The attack is part of a troubling pattern of insecurity hitting Christian communities across Syria. In recent months, robberies, kidnappings, and even attacks on churches have become increasingly common in Homs, Aleppo, and beyond. For many, the assault on Naaman is another chilling reminder of the dangers Christians still face in a country fractured by war and lawlessness.

European Commission to examine EU abortion funding initiative 

The European Commission has said it will examine the European Citizens’ Initiative’s call for EU funding for “safe and accessible” abortion after an initiative reached over 1 million signatures across 19 member states, according to a European News Room report.

A Slovenian nonprofit organization, Institute 8th March, led the initiative, alongside several other EU nongovernmental organizations. “We want the European Union to establish a financial mechanism that would allow countries to provide abortion services to those individuals who do not have access to abortion in their own countries,” Institute 8th March Director Nika Kovač said. The commission said it will provide a response by March 2026.

Internal displacement camps in Nigeria ‘competing for space’ amid ongoing violence

Refugee camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Nigeria are experiencing heightened pressure amid ongoing violence across the West African country, according to Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja.

“People are losing their homes. The growing number of IDP camps is competing for space with estates in the cities,” he said in an Aug. 31 statement posted to his Facebook account. The archbishop further called on the government to “rise up to the occasion and take definitive action to stop the incessant killings, terrorism, banditry, and economic hardships ravaging our people.”

South Sudan bishop expresses solidarity with victims after landslide

Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of the Tombura-Yambio Diocese in South Sudan has expressed his solidarity with the victims of a devastating landslide that reportedly wiped out the village of Tarasin in the southwest Darfur region.

“It is with a heart full of sorrow and solidarity that I write to you in the wake of the devastating landslide that has erased the village of Tarasin and claimed so many innocent lives. The scale of this tragedy defies words, yet it is our shared humanity, our common faith, and our spiritual responsibility that compel us to speak to comfort, to support, and to hope,” the bishop said in a Sept. 3 letter shared with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa. “Please accept my deepest condolences and heartfelt prayers for all those affected. I stand with you in mourning but also in courage and in the pursuit of justice, dignity, and healing for the survivors.”

South Korean priests urge government not to build airport over wetland

The Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice in South Korea is protesting against government proposals to build an airport near the Saemangeum wetland, according to a UCA News report. 

The association celebrated Mass on Sept. 1 outside the presidential office in Seoul to express its opposition to the project, which it said “is destroying the environment and people’s livelihoods.” Parish priest Father Song Yeon-hong, who presided over the Mass, spoke out against the project, saying: “Many lives are dying due to the project, migratory birds that once visited Saemangeum have vanished, and local fishermen are leaving.”

St. Anne’s Church in Syria reopens

In a rare scene of celebration from Syria’s battered northwest, hundreds of worshippers gathered in the village of Yacoubiyah for the rededication of St. Anne’s Church, ACI MENA reported Monday. The centuries-old site, scarred by war and earthquakes, has been restored thanks to the efforts of Franciscan friars and local Christians. 

The liturgy, led by Bishop Magar Ashkarian of the Armenian Orthodox Church, was filled with music, bells, and the sight of parishioners reclaiming a sacred space long denied to them. St. Anne’s, first built in the 14th century, had suffered destruction and neglect through war and extremism. Only in recent years, under shifting local conditions, were Christians permitted to return and celebrate their patron saint’s feast. For villagers from Yacoubiyah, al-Quniyah, and al-Jadida, and pilgrims from across Syria, the reopening was more than a religious event; it was a sign of endurance and hope.

Blessed Carlo Acutis (left) and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. / Credit: Diocese of Assisi/Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Vatican City, Sep 5, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Sept. 7 canonizations of Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati will be a crucial step in a decades-long effort to attract people to the Catholic faith through young, holy patrons.

“Their canonization confirms that holiness is not an abstract ideal but can manifest itself in contemporary ways, close to the sensibilities of young people, in the present and now … through friendship, study, family, the challenges of today, and even through illness faced with Christian hope,” said Leticia Arráez, a communications researcher at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.

According to Arráez, the last 40 years have seen youth become “major protagonists” in shaping the Church’s identity and spearheading its evangelical mission throughout the world.

During the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, young people were given priority and a privileged place of recognition within the Church, especially after the pope publicly entrusted the Cross of the Jubilee Year of the Redemption to young people on Easter Sunday in 1984.

Before the close of the 1983-1984 jubilee, John Paul II expressed confidence in young people as credible leaders. During the gathering in Rome, he said they had a “right and duty” to respond to the challenges they see in the world.

“You have a sort of prophetic role: You can denounce today’s ills by speaking out, first and foremost, against that widespread ‘culture of death,’” John Paul told the gathering.

“​​It is up to you, with your innate sensitivity to the values ​​proclaimed by Christ, and your aversion to compromise, to work, together with your elders who have not resigned themselves to such compromises, to overcome persistent injustices and all their multifaceted manifestations, which, like the evils mentioned above, have their roots in the human heart,” he added.

Throughout the 1980s, youth issues gained international attention within the Church and across other international platforms. During the 1985 U.N. Year of Youth, Pope John Paul II addressed young people in Rome to mark the occasion and to announce the creation of World Youth Day (WYD).

According to Arráez, the pope’s decision to create an annual global gathering dedicated to youth changed the perception that young people are primarily “recipients” of the Catholic faith, emphasizing instead their role as “privileged interlocutors” capable of building up the universal Church.

Acutis and Frassati were selected as patrons of WYD and, through these annual gatherings, devotion to these two blesseds have spread far and wide, beyond Italy, to every continent among people inspired by their examples of holy living.

Devotion to Acutis, who died Oct. 12 on the feast day of Brazil’s patroness, Our Lady of Aparecida, reached international level during the 2013 WYD in Rio de Janeiro as young Catholics began to hear more about his story and the miraculous healing, attributed to his intercession, of a 4-year-old Brazilian boy, Matheus Vianna, who had a rare pancreatic condition.

Beatified in 1990 by Pope John Paul II, Frassati became known as the “Man of the Beatitudes” and was made an official WYD patron by the pope ahead of the 2002 WYD in Toronto. He has since remained a WYD patron and his remains have traveled twice outside of Italy for the 2008 WYD in Sydney and the 2016 WYD in Krakow, Poland.

During a time when religious belief and practice have been under pressure from rapid secularization as well as scandals of abuse and corruption in the Church, the Church has chosen two young holy patrons who, through their lives, have shown the attractiveness of being real and authentic in their love of God and other people.

“The Church intends to propose accessible and credible models of Christian life for our time,” Arráez said. “Frassati with his social commitment, his charity toward others, and his joyful spirituality lived in the world, [as did] Acutis with his innovative use of technology as a means of evangelization.” 

Arráez said the recent focus on young ordinary saints, who were neither martyrs nor mystics, is in keeping with Vatican II’s message on the “universal call to holiness” promulgated in Pope Paul VI’s Lumen Gentium, which teaches that “all the faithful, whatever their condition or state, are called by the Lord, each in his own way, to that perfect holiness.”

“Through [Acutis and Frassati] the Church demonstrates that holiness, living the meaning of life in the present, is possible at a young age and does not require extraordinary conditions or waiting to grow up or for ideal circumstances … but rather an authentic lifestyle, rooted in faith and in the message of Christ that the Gospel teaches us, lived today, in 2025,” Arráez said.

Viewers can tune in to “EWTN News Nightly” and “EWTN News In Depth” for an exclusive preview of the canonizations. “EWTN News Nightly” airs at 6 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. ET on Friday, Sept. 5; and “EWTN News In Depth” airs at 8 p.m. ET the same day.

Viewers can also follow here to watch the canonizations live on YouTube.

A view of the damage to the Holy Family church in Gaza City following an Israeli strike on the church, in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on July 17, 2025. / Credit: OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images

ACI MENA, Sep 5, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Despite evacuation orders and escalating military operations across Gaza, the Emergency Committee at Holy Family Church — Gaza’s only Catholic parish — recently announced that its members will stay put to care for displaced residents who have taken shelter there.

Israeli forces recently issued general orders to residents to evacuate the Zeitoun neighborhood, one of the largest neighborhoods in Gaza City, which covers approximately 9 square kilometers (about 3.5 square miles) and was, until the war, home to over 100,000 people. Holy Family Church is located within this neighborhood, though it did not receive any specific order to evacuate its compound.

The Emergency Committee opened its statement with a biblical verse: “And so, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and unmovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not useless in the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58).

Staying at the parish is both a moral and pastoral duty, the committee said, driven by the need to care for elderly and disabled residents who depend on the church’s round-the-clock support.

The Emergency Committee, operating “since the first day of war,” vowed to remain “at the forefront of service” to the community. The decision to stay was made to protect those who have sought refuge within the church, while emphasizing that the choice to leave or remain “must be left to the conscience of every civilian.”

The language of the committee’s Aug. 27 announcement echoes a joint statement issued the day before, on Aug. 26, by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which warned that evacuation orders forcing civilians to relocate to southern Gaza amount to a “death sentence” for many who have found shelter in religious institutions. 

The Catholic church complex of Holy Family and the nearby Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrios have housed hundreds of civilians since the war began, many physically unable to make the journey south.

“The path of justice leads to life,” both patriarchates declared, urging world leaders to protect civilians’ right to remain on their land and reject mass expulsion policies. The Emergency Committee also called on local and international authorities to break the cycle of violence and find solutions that protect life and human dignity.

Father Gabriel Romanelli, Holy Family’s Catholic parish priest, reinforced this position in an interview with Vatican News. “We are in God’s hands. We are here for Jesus Christ. We are here to serve him in the Eucharist, and to serve him in the poor, the sick, and the suffering,” he said.

Romanelli added that the priests and sisters remaining at the church believe they have a moral obligation to continue caring for elderly, disabled, and other vulnerable people who have depended on church institutions for daily survival for years. Forcing such people onto the streets would be catastrophic, he warned, given widespread malnutrition, physical vulnerability, and the near-total absence of medical care outside the church walls.

The Emergency Committee’s declaration comes as military operations in Gaza have sharply escalated, with heavy bombardment targeting densely populated neighborhoods. Local authorities and residents report mounting civilian casualties and widespread destruction. Against this backdrop, church leaders have renewed urgent calls for immediate international action to protect civilians, ensure humanitarian aid delivery, and prevent forced displacement.

null / Credit: Diego G Diaz/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Sep 5, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).

The many changes to immigration enforcement policies introduced by the Trump administration since the president’s inauguration in January has led what some Catholic dioceses are calling “terror” to take hold of Spanish-speaking parishioners throughout the United States.

CNA asked dioceses around the country what effects, if any, the administration’s changing policies have had on Spanish Mass attendance. While responses varied — some dioceses have noted declines while others have seen increased attendance — one theme appeared throughout: Immigrants are filled with fear.

‘It’s more than fear — it’s terror’

The Archdiocese of Atlanta has not collected data on Mass attendance, and any changes in attendance, if any, are “very small,” according to Yolanda Muñoz, the director of Hispanic and Latino ministries for the archdiocese. 

She told CNA that although people are “very afraid,” their “faith is strong and they find ways around” their fears. Some carpool with people who have legal status. Many have created WhatsApp chats “to inform one another if there are areas of danger to avoid.”

Muñoz said some priests are even going to places where “there is a heavy concentration of immigrants, like trailer parks” to say Mass.

The archdiocese has held informational meetings in parishes at which immigrants are educated in their rights as well as in ways to plan and protect themselves and their families if they are deported.

Although the current “situation is very difficult and very sad, we must keep on reminding ourselves that Christ is in the boat in the middle of the storm,” Muñoz said. 

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of the Archdiocese of San Antonio told CNA he had not heard from priests that people were avoiding going to church, although on the day he spoke with CNA, he said he had just heard from a local priest about three families that were taken into custody.

He stressed that “fear is there. It’s more than fear — it’s terror.”

Nevertheless, he said that at least in San Antonio, people “trust the Church and their communities” because they have faith.

García-Siller said he thinks San Antonio is unique because there is more acceptance of immigrants there due to integration that has been ongoing for decades in the city.

“In San Antonio, we have Spanish Masses in almost all parishes … Hispanics here go to any parish,” he said.

According to the archbishop, the federal government has, until February of this year, asked the Church in San Antonio to help immigrants, and the Church responded, through Catholic Charities, with humanitarian aid, medical and legal assistance, counseling, and spiritual support.

“What is beautiful to see in San Antonio is that these services are not done only by professionals but also people from the parishes, laity, religious men and women, brothers, religious nuns and diocesan priests,” he said. 

“I have seen in the last few months more people in need. People are eating less, they are avoiding getting health care, and some even avoid going to school,” he said.

“We don’t ask them if they have papers or not,” he continued. “Because of the rhetoric in the country, people are very damaged, very scared. We avoid divisive narratives.”

The prelate said that immigrants “know that we as the Church, the body of Christ, we are for them.”

‘Less likely to linger after Mass’

A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Las Vegas told CNA the archdiocese had noted a decline in participation at some Hispanic parishes, “particularly in Mass attendance and religious education enrollment.”

“One parish that would typically see around 1,500 children in its first Communion program has closer to 860 this year,” according to the archdiocese. ”In addition, families seem less likely to linger after Mass for community activities and socializing.”

Parishioners expressing ‘apprehension and fear’

Secretary for Communications and Public Affairs for the Archdiocese of Boston Terrence Donilon told CNA that the climate of “uncertainty” has resulted in “a stressful time for ethnic communities in the Commonwealth” of Massachusetts, with parishes rescheduling or seeking “alternatives” for summer festivals used for parish fellowship and fundraising.

“Anecdotally some pastors, though not all, have noticed Mass attendance among non-Anglo parishioners decline during this period of concern,” Donilon said.

Alayna Fox of the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, told CNA that “while the Diocese of Burlington does not have a large population of native Spanish speakers, it has been reported that attendance at the Masses offered in Spanish have experienced a drop in attendance.”

The communications director for the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, Tara Bishop, noted that there had been a decline in attendance recently, though she said the diocese could not “definitively attribute” it to immigration policies. 

She went on to say that many parishioners had “expressed apprehension and fear about participating in various parish events.”

However, Bishop said that “it is common to see a significant drop in attendance at Eucharistic celebrations during the summer months, so this decline may be part of a seasonal trend rather than a direct result of immigration policy changes.”

Need for a ‘spiritual dimension in this time of stress’

Echoing Bishop, Father Will Banowsky of Holy Spirit Catholic Church located in the southwest part of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City said that seasonal effects on attendance rather than fear of immigration enforcement seemed to explain declines in Spanish Mass participation throughout the summer. 

“A lot of people went back to their countries in the summer, or they went on vacation,” he said.

Many returned for the start of the school year, he said. There were 920 people at a recent Spanish Mass at Holy Spirit, whose congregation is about 50% Hispanic and where the average is closer to 650-800.

Banowsky told CNA that the higher-than-average attendance numbers in August could be attributed to people knowing they need that “spiritual dimension in this time of stress.”

While he said his parish and others in the archdiocese have not been “hurting” regarding attendance, he said there is still a lot of fear among Hispanic parishioners, and “social media doesn’t help.”

“We try to make sure people can find a refuge from their fears here, whatever those fears may be,” he said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a Senate hearing on Sept. 4, 2025, that the FDA review of abortion pill safety concerns is ongoing. / Credit: Carl DMaster/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 4, 2025 / 17:02 pm (CNA).

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) testified during a Senate hearing on Sept. 4 that a federal review of the safety concerns related to the abortion pill is still ongoing.

Kennedy told the Senate Finance Committee that former President Joe Biden’s administration “twisted the data” to downplay health concerns about the abortion pill mifepristone.

“We’re going to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore,” Kennedy said. “We’re producing honest science and gold-standard science on that.”

Republican Sens. James Lankford and Steve Daines both pressed Kennedy on their concerns about the drug during the Thursday hearing.

Kennedy was unable to say when the review would be completed or whether HHS or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would move toward regulating mifepristone more strictly. However, he committed to keeping the senators up to date on any developments. 

The FDA is “getting data in all the time — new data that we’re reviewing,” he said.

Daines, the founder of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, referenced a study by the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) that found that 11% of women who take the abortion pill suffer at least one “serious adverse event” within 45 days. The study reviewed the insurance claims of 865,727 women who used the drug to calculate that number.

“That is 22 times higher than the FDA’s long-standing estimate of less than 0.5%,” Daines told Kennedy. “... For years we’ve heard the misleading and frankly very harmful lie that’s being sold to women that this drug is ‘as safe as Tylenol.’ These lies sadly have real-world consequences.”

Both Daines and Lankford expressed concern about the deregulation of mifepristone under both the Biden and Obama administrations.

The FDA reduced the number of in-person doctor visits required to obtain mifepristone from three to one in 2016 and then to zero in 2023. Another 2016 change ended requirements that mifepristone be dispensed by a physician, taken in a doctor’s office, and monitored in a follow-up visit. 

Another 2023 change permitted mail delivery of the drugs.

Daines said the FDA “has steadily stripped away safeguards related to this drug” and asked Kennedy whether the Trump administration would reverse the Biden administration’s deregulation.

Kennedy told Daines he needs to check with the White House to know its position on that and would “need to get back to you on that” by next week.

In December 2024, Trump told Time magazine that he was committed to ensuring the abortion pill remains legally available. However, he also directed Kennedy to facilitate studies on the safety of the drug.

“Those studies are progressing and … they’re ongoing,” Kennedy said in the hearing.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in a statement published after the hearing thanked the senators for raising those concerns and thanked Kennedy and the administration for reviewing safety concerns about the drug.

“We are grateful that Secretary Kennedy confirmed the FDA’s review of abortion drugs is now underway and look forward to his promised release of new data after years of the Biden administration ignoring this urgent issue,” she said. “Secretary Kennedy even revealed that Biden’s FDA ‘twisted’ data to bury safety signals.”

Dannenfelser warned that “as women and children are harmed, these dangerous drugs continue to be bought and sold with no commonsense safeguards and no accountability.”

“We look forward to hearing the update on restoring the in-person dispensing of mifepristone,” she said.

More than half of all abortions nationwide are now conducted chemically with pills, including mifepristone.

The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 to complete abortions through the first seven weeks of pregnancy. In 2016, the FDA expanded its approval to the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

At 10 weeks of pregnancy, an unborn child has a fetal heartbeat, early brain activity, and partially developed eyes, lips, and nostrils. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, which cuts off the child’s supply of oxygen and nutrients to kill the unborn child. A second pill, misoprostol, helps expel the body from the mother by essentially inducing labor.

Father Rafael Ángel Ciro. / Credit: Diocese of Paterson, New Jersey

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 4, 2025 / 15:54 pm (CNA).

The bishop of Paterson, New Jersey, Kevin J. Sweeney, offered the funeral Mass for Father Rafael Ángel Ciro, a 45-year-old Colombian priest who died by suicide on Aug. 27. In a heartfelt homily on Sept. 3, Sweeney recalled that Jesus, who understands our pain and suffering, “is here and comforts us.”

In his opening remarks in both English and Spanish, the bishop addressed the priest’s mother, Elena Guarín, and his brother Jairo, saying: “We are with you, with you and the entire family there in Colombia. We are all one family, with our Bishop Emeritus [Arthur] Serratelli, with all the priests. We are also your children, Doña Elena: The mother of one priest is the mother of all priests. You are also our mom.”

“We share the pain, but we also share the faith, especially with the community of St. Stephen and all the parishes where Father Rafael served as a priest,” the prelate continued.

Jesus understands our pain and suffering

In his homily on the Gospel recounting the death of Lazarus, still alternating between English and Spanish, Sweeney recalled the lyrics of a well-known Spanish hymn: “God is here, as surely as the air I breathe, as surely as the morning sun rises, so surely that when I speak to him, he can hear me.”

“We believe this: Jesus our God is here, in the home of Doña Elena and the family of Father Rafael in Colombia, in the hearts of each one of us present here. Jesus speaks to us and comforts us. He comes to us, as he did to that house in Bethany, which was also in mourning,” the prelate emphasized.

The bishop of Paterson noted that “perhaps we are like Martha, angrily asking Jesus where he was, and if he had been, perhaps my brother would not have died. He doesn’t answer Martha’s question with an explanation, nor does he give us an explanation today to all our questions, but he answers us surely as he answers Martha: ‘Your brother will rise.’”

“And she tells him with pain that she knows he will rise again on the last day. And Jesus tells her, he tells Doña Elena and us, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will never die.’”

The prelate then added that “Jesus is here at this moment, walking with us, and will accompany the priests who will go with Father Rafael to his burial in his beloved Colombia.”

“The shortest line in the Gospel says: ‘Jesus wept.’ He understands our pain and suffering and invites us to walk with him and the Blessed Virgin Mary to Calvary. Only God knows Father Rafael’s journey, his daily life; only God knows how many families and individuals he accompanied, and who now weep.”

Sweeney then thanked Guarín for giving the Church “a very good priest. A round of applause for our beloved Father Rafael! To his brother, Jairo, we priests are your brothers, too.”

At the end of his homily, the bishop said: “To anyone who feels alone or anxious now, I want to say, ‘You are not alone.’ God does not leave us alone. If you are struggling with difficulties, psychological emotions, depression, you are not alone, we want to walk with you.”

“We give thanks for the priesthood of Father Rafael Ángel Ciro, and we commend him to God now,” he concluded.

Biography of Father Rafael Ángel Ciro

Rafael Ángel Ciro was born on Oct. 29, 1979, in the municipality of Alejandría in the district of Antioquia, Colombia. 

He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín, Colombia, in 2006.

He continued his theological studies at the Intercontinental University in Mexico City (2007–2009), Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut (2011–2012), and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland (2012–2013).

Before joining the Diocese of Paterson as a seminarian in January 2011, he dedicated nearly three years to missionary work in Medellín and another three years in Mexico City. He also ministered to Hispanic migrants in Alabama and New Jersey.

He was ordained a priest on March 25, 2013, at St. Philip the Apostle Parish in Clifton, New Jersey. Following his ordination, he served in the parish communities of St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Paterson, St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Passaic, St. Nicholas Parish, also in Passaic, and Sacred Heart and Holy Rosary Parish in Dover, New Jersey, before being appointed pastor of St. Stephen’s Parish in Paterson. 

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