St. Andrew Catholic Church

Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk (pictured at the White House in May) was shot and killed on Sept. 10, 2025, while speaking to college students in Utah. / Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 10, 2025 / 17:37 pm (CNA).

Charlie Kirk — founder of the conservative campus activist organization Turning Point USA and outspoken evangelical Christian — was shot dead in an apparent assassination during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 10.

The 31-year-old was fatally shot in the neck while taking questions from audience members during a stop at the university as part of his American Comeback Tour. He is survived by his wife, Erika Frantzve, and his 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son.

The shooting occurred when Kirk was answering a student’s question about transgenderism and gun violence at about 12:10 p.m. MST, shortly after the event began. Utah Valley University was Kirk’s first tour stop.

Kirk, who often debated students on campus, strongly defended free speech at colleges and was an outspoken critic of discrimination against Christians and gender ideology. He founded Turning Point USA in 2012 when he was just 18 years old to promote free speech and conservative values on college campuses.

Vice President JD Vance posted on X that Kirk’s campus events “are one of the few places with open and honest dialogue between left and right,” noting that Kirk “would answer any question and talk to everyone.”

“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,” Vance said in a follow-up post.

Kirk was a close ally of President Donald Trump, who expressed sadness about his death in a Truth Social post and referred to Kirk as “great, and even legendary.”

“No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” he wrote. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika and family. Charlie, we love you!”

Kirk has also been outspoken about his Christian faith on social media, in interviews, and on his previous campus tours.

In a post on X last week, Kirk expressed optimism about a “revival in the Christian church.” 

“Churches are growing,” Kirk said. “Young people are flocking to faith in God. You do not want to live in a non-Christian country. Even the most hardened atheists or agnostics are blessed by the church’s influence.”

As of early Wednesday evening, the shooter has not yet been confirmed captured. The motive is not yet known.

Trump ordered all American flags in the United States to be flown at half-staff until 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14, to honor Kirk’s legacy. The president said Kirk was “ a truly Great American Patriot.”

Charlie Kirk speaks with attendees at the 2025 Chapter Leadership Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. / Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 10, 2025 / 15:54 pm (CNA).

Founder and President of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk has been shot in an incident that took place at a Utah Valley University event earlier this afternoon.

Prayer requests for Kirk flooded across social media platforms after video footage depicting him being shot in the neck began to circulate on X. Kirk had been discussing the rising phenomenon of violent attacks perpetrated by trans-identifying individuals. 

AP News reported on X that Kirk has died.

“Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father,” Vice President JD Vance wrote immediately after news broke of the attack. 

“Dear God, protect Charlie in his darkest hour,” Vance wrote in another post.

President Donald Trump also posted his platform Truth Social: “We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!”

Kirk is married to his wife, Erika, and is the father of two children. 

Police have reportedly arrested a man in connection with the attack, according to videos posted on social media. The man has not been identified. 

St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on Capitol Hill will host a prayer vigil for Kirk after its 5:15 p.m. Eucharistic adoration.

Kirk, who has described himself as evangelical, recently went viral on social media for his surprising take on the Virgin Mary, saying during an episode of “The Charlie Kirk Show” on the Real America’s Voice channel that he believed Protestants do not talk about or venerate Mary enough, adding that Mary “is the solution” to “toxic feminism in America.”

“Mary was clearly important to early Christians,” Kirk said. “Have more young ladies be pious, be reverent, be full of faith, slow to anger, slow to words at times. Mary is a phenomenal example, and I think a counter to so much of the toxicity of feminism in the modern era.”

Bishop Robert Barron was among those to post immediately after the attack, writing: “Please pray for Charlie Kirk.” 

FBI Director Kash Patel said that “agents will be on the scene quickly,” and that the FBI would be standing “in full support of the ongoing response and investigation.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stated: “I’ve been briefed on the shooting in Utah. Casey and I are praying for Charlie Kirk and his family.”

“My heart is sick. Charlie is a friend. A good, courageous man. Who cares passionately and deeply about this country. Who loves life. A father and husband. Pray for him, pray earnestly. Pray for his family. Pray for our country. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy,” Live Action Founder Lila Rose wrote in a social media post.

This is a developing story. This story was last updated on Sept. 10, 2025, at 4:48 p.m. ET.

Pope Leo XIV preaches at the historic Rotonda church in Albano, Aug. 17, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 10, 2025 / 13:18 pm (CNA).

On the evening of Sept. 9, when leaving Castel Gandolfo, where he had spent the day, Pope Leo XIV described Israel’s attack earlier Tuesday against leaders of the Hamas terrorist group in Doha, Qatar, as “very serious.”

Referring to the growing tension in the Middle East conflict, the pontiff stated: “We must pray a lot and keep working, searching, insisting on peace.” 

On Wednesday, at the end of the general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Holy Father encouraged the faithful to remember “in their prayers and in their humanitarian projects also the children of Ukraine, Gaza, and other regions of the world affected by war.”

At Castel Gandolfo, the pontiff specifically expressed his concern about the situation in Gaza, after Israel ordered the immediate evacuation of residents in anticipation of an imminent intensification of military operations.

Pope Leo XIV explained that he had unsuccessfully attempted to contact Father Gabriel Romanelli, pastor of Holy Family Church, the only Catholic church in Gaza.

“I tried to call the parish priest just now; I have no news,” he said. “They were certainly OK before, but after this new [Israeli army evacuation] order, I’m not sure.” 

Hours later, Romanelli reported on X that he had finally managed to speak with the Holy Father. “He asked us how we’ve been and what the situation was like. He sent us his blessing and is praying for us and for peace,” the priest wrote.

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

St. Francis Xavier statue in front St. Joseph Cathedral in Beijing, China, Feb. 25, 2016. / Credit: Zvonimir Atletic/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Sep 10, 2025 / 12:21 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has created a new Catholic diocese in northern China with the same name as one established decades ago by Beijing without Vatican approval, underscoring ongoing tensions over how China has redrawn Catholic diocesan borders independently of Rome. 

The Vatican announced Wednesday that the pope has suppressed two historic dioceses of Xiwanzi and Xuanhua — both erected in 1946 by Pope Pius XII — and replaced them with the Diocese of Zhangjiakou. The see of the new diocese is based in the city of Zhangjiakou, where China’s state-controlled Catholic association set up its own diocese in 1980 using boundaries never recognized by the Holy See. 

Notably absent from the Vatican’s announcement was any mention of Bishop Augustine Cui Tai, 75, the longtime underground bishop of Xuanhua, the diocese Pope Leo XIV suppressed. Cui has been subjected to repeated detention, house arrest, and forced labor over the past three decades, according to a recent report.

Pope Leo XIV appointed a new bishop to lead the Diocese of Zhangjiakou in Hebei province, Father Joseph Wang Zhengui, who was selected within the framework of the Holy See’s provisional agreement with the Chinese government on the appointment of bishops, also referred to as the Vatican-China deal.

The Vatican announcement came hours after Wang, 62, was consecrated bishop of Zhangjiakou on Sept. 10 in a Mass at the Church of the Holy Family in Zhangjiakou attended by about 300 Catholics, 50 priests, and senior Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association leaders. The Vatican said that Pope Leo had appointed Wang on July 8.

“In order to promote the pastoral care of the Lord’s flock and to attend more effectively to its spiritual welfare, on July 8, 2025, Pope Leo XIV decided to suppress the dioceses of Xuanhua and Xiwanzi in mainland China, which were established on April 11, 1946, by Pope Pius XII,” the Holy See Press Office said in its announcement. “In this way, the territory of the Diocese of Zhangjiakou corresponds to that of the capital city of Zhangjiakou.”

The new diocese covers 14 districts and counties around the city of Zhangjiakou, an area of 14,000 square miles with a population of just over 4 million people, including about 85,000 Catholics served by 89 priests. It will be a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Beijing.

No mention of persecuted bishop

The Holy See’s announcement conspicuously omitted mention of the current underground bishop of the suppressed Diocese of Xuanhua. Bishop Cui has been detained four times since the 2018 China-Vatican agreement was signed and had not been seen since he was taken into police custody in April 2021, according to a 2024 report by the Hudson Institute. His diocese had repeatedly called for his release from detention but to no avail. Asia News reported that Catholic clergy in Hebei were informed that a “retirement” ceremony for Cui, who is currently 75 years old, will take place on Sept. 12.

China’s disputed diocesan borders

The announcement highlights the long-standing issue in Vatican-China relations: The government-sponsored Chinese Patriotic Association redrew diocesan borders to align with state administrative divisions. This redrawn diocesan map does not match the Vatican’s canonical jurisdictions.

The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association is a state-run body under the control of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department. 

Prior to Pope Leo’s decision, Beijing recognized 104 dioceses while the Holy See had 143 Catholic dioceses in China. While the 2018 Vatican-China deal — renewed by Pope Francis in October 2024 — aims to fill vacant sees through a shared process of bishop appointments, its details remain secret. Vatican officials have previously acknowledged that Beijing violated the agreement multiple times.

Pope Leo XIV on China

The Vatican came under criticism during Pope Francis’ pontificate for what some saw as a muted response to China’s human rights abuses, including the internment of Uyghur Muslims and the imprisonment of Catholic pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong.  

On May 1, new restrictions from China’s United Front came into force banning foreign clergy from presiding over religious activities for Chinese people without the invitation of the Chinese government, severely limiting foreign missionary activity in the country. Meanwhile, state-sanctioned Catholic institutions in China offered little acknowledgement of Pope Francis’ death.  

Pope Leo XIV, who inherited the Vatican-China deal from Francis, has retained Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the architect of the deal, as his secretary of state, yet it remains unclear how Vatican-China relations might shift under the new pontiff. 

Cardinal Stephen Chow, the bishop of Hong Kong, who met with Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 2, told his local diocesan newspaper, the Sunday Examiner, that “the Holy Father is not entirely unaware of the Church in China, as he has already gathered insights from multiple sources and through the Sino-Vatican agreement.”

Leo XIV also visited mainland China before his election as pope when he served as superior general of the Augustinian order. 

“He recognizes the importance of dialogue between the Church and the mainland authorities, and considers respectful communication as the priority in addressing challenges in China-Vatican relations,” Chow said.

Marchers make their way through central London during the 10th annual March for Life UK on Sept. 6, 2025. / Credit: Edward Pentin/EWTN News

National Catholic Register, Sep 10, 2025 / 11:25 am (CNA).

This year’s March for Life UK saw its largest-ever number of participants on Sept. 6, drawing together families and individuals from a diverse mix of backgrounds and nationalities as well as Catholic priests, religious, seven Catholic bishops and, for the first time, a message from the Holy Father.

Held in a festive atmosphere and under warm, sunny September skies, organizers estimated 10,000 participants took part in the 10th annual multidenominational Christian march, which began near Westminster Cathedral and ended close to the Houses of Parliament. 

A bagpipe player led the marchers through the meandering streets as placards and banners were held aloft that included messages such as “Human Rights Begin at Conception,” “Life From Conception No Exception,” and “Abortion Stops a Beating Heart.” 

Despite several unforeseen obstacles, including the suspension of the March for Life UK X account two days before the march, the event was widely viewed as a great success. 

“It’s been absolutely fantastic, by far the biggest march yet with amazing support in so many ways,” Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, director of March for Life UK, told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner. 

“We’ve seen not just a rise in numbers but more younger people, more religious leaders, more people from all spectrums, and people who have no religious beliefs. We’ve just seen it growing in every corner — it’s fantastic, really.” 

But Vaughan-Spruce was keen to stress that while the numbers are important, the march has become “much more” than that, and it involves the “beautiful, individual, and personal stories” that people bring to the event. 

“It’s so wonderful because ultimately those that come on this march are actually already living in this profound truth that human life is sacred,” said Bishop David Waller, ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. “And it’s not just about the unborn child; there are all sorts of issues in our society here, but if the unborn child isn’t sacred, then really everything falls from then on.”

Waller told the Register that many people at the march will have had abortions (according to statistics, 1 in 3 women in England will have had an abortion by the age of 45), but he stressed “it’s not about hating people who have turned to abortion, because their lives, too, are holy and sacred. It’s about the fundamental dignity of human life.”

Anti-life Parliament

This year’s march took place in the context of Britain facing one of its most anti-life Parliaments in history. In June, legislators in the House of Commons passed an assisted suicide bill and an amendment to a bill that removes criminal liability for women who end their own pregnancies at any gestational age, including up to birth. Both pieces of legislation must still pass other legislative stages before becoming law, but they both garner considerable support among political leaders and much of the British public. 

Asked about the legislation, Paul Malloy, a Catholic layman taking part in his fifth U.K. March for Life, said such legislation “surely is a horror” and that by basically making “doctors into killers, the future of our society is under threat.” 

Yet despite these threats and the increased participation in the March for Life, he said the march is “never referenced by the BBC” or other mainstream media outlets. 

“It’s all part of this silence that is drawn over this issue, and so the pretense continues that they’re not real lives, they’re not human lives, which the culture keeps saying louder and louder,” Malloy said. “But the reality, which we all know, is that human life from conception is a human life. 

“We’re here, as you can see, people of all ages, to actually show the reality,” he said.  

Father Martin Boland, a priest from the Diocese of Brentwood, northeast of London, was “very heartened” by the presence of so many young people at the march, which showed they are “reflecting more deeply on these life issues.” He expressed hope that in future years “more and more priests will feel confident inviting their parishioners” to join the march, as he had done. 

“If everybody, if every parish, was represented in the land, the numbers would really swell,” he told the Register. 

The march passed a small but vocal group of pro-abortion protesters, most wearing surgical masks. One of the masked protesters explained they were wearing them because they were “afraid of surveillance” and possibly also for “health reasons.”

The march concluded with various keynote speeches, including one from Oklahoma’s Josiah Presley, who shared a stirring testimony of how he had survived an attempted surgical abortion that left him with a deformed arm. 

Raised by loving adoptive parents, Presley was once filled with bitterness toward his biological parents who tried to have him aborted, but he shared how an encounter with Jesus Christ at 16 changed his life, reminding him of his “value and worth.” He urged the crowd not to stop speaking the truth but to act upon it.

Vaughan-Spruce urged those present to take a side on the issue of the unborn. “Priceless human beings or worthless bits of tissue — what do you believe and, more importantly, how will you respond?” she asked. “Parents, politicians, pastors, police, medics, lawyers, journalists, and every single person here must make that choice. These two worldviews cannot coexist. They can’t both be right. Pick your side, but remember what they say: The fence belongs to Satan.”

Human rights ‘in the dark’

The theme for the U.K.’s March for Life 2025 — “Human Rights for All Humans” — was the focus of impassioned talks and two panels of speakers that took place at an evangelical church hall just before the march got underway. 

Professor Philip Booth, who teaches at St. Mary’s University in Twickenham, London, reminded participants to pray for the unborn and for parents of unborn children in their parish, and for those mothers and fathers who have suffered from the miscarriage of their preborn child. He also invited the faithful to encourage women who have had miscarriages and perhaps ask them to give a talk in the parish. 

“If we are truly to change culture so that once again we think of an unborn baby as a human person, we must begin with our own practice, and we can do that in simple ways, and that can then really change the culture significantly,” he said. 

At a panel titled “Human Rights in the Dark: What Women Aren’t Told,” a woman named Natalia recounted how when pregnant in 2020 at age 19 she had visited an abortion center three times, each time too emotionally distraught to have an abortion, but on the third visit she was offered and accepted abortion pills (made legal in the U.K. in 2018) after it was suggested it might be easier. She later found support following the trauma of her abortion through the group Rachel’s Vineyard and is now the mother to a young child, whom she brought to the march.  

Suzanne, an American mother on the panel, was told by doctors when 22 weeks pregnant that her unborn baby had something chromosomally wrong with her, that the child would certainly not live, and that Suzanne’s life was threatened too. So doctors pressed her to have an abortion. Suzanne and her husband were opposed and, after her own mother told her daughter, “If there’s still a heartbeat, there’s hope,” Suzanne went against the doctors’ advice and kept her child. Rachel Mary was born at 26 weeks and is now a healthy young woman who was present in the audience. 

“Abortion is not health care, and doctors should never, ever utter the word abortion,” Suzanne fervently stressed to resounding applause. 

A second panel discussed the state of freedom of speech and association in the United Kingdom, the potential risk of persecution for pro-life advocacy online and in the workplace, and what Britain might look like should the Abortion Act of 1967 be overturned.

Pope Leo greets participants

In his message to the participants delivered through the apostolic nuncio, Pope Leo XIV sent his “greetings of good wishes” to the participants at “this significant event” and reiterated what he had told members of the diplomatic corps in May — that it is government leaders’ “responsibility to work to build harmonious and peaceful civil societies.” 

Above all, he said, this can be achieved “by investing in the family [and] respecting the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly.”

He closed by imparting his apostolic blessing “to all participating in the March for Life UK” and, through the intercession of the Mother of God, invoked “an abundance of divine graces.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general of Synod on Synodality, speaks to the media on June 20, 2023, at the temporary headquarters of the Holy See Press Office in Vatican City. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

CNA Deutsch, Sep 10, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, stated in a recent interview that he “would not define morality — especially sexual morality — as narrowly as the Church does today.”

At the same time, the archbishop of Luxembourg and general relator of the multiyear Synod on Synodality under Pope Francis affirmed that “morality is essential. We cannot do without it.”

In conversation with the Austrian weekly Die Furche, he reflected on his role in the synod, shared insights on the recent conclave, and discussed the prospects for the Church in Europe.

Hollerich urged the Church to move beyond what he described as a backward-looking perspective: “Some look to the past with nostalgia, others with fear. Both are wrong. We are part of a history — this we must accept and learn from. But we must also move forward.”

Synod imagery: Tent vs. family

The Jesuit cardinal spoke in detail about his work on the Synod on Synodality. One concept that emerged during the process was “the image of a tent that needs to be expanded so that everyone can find space within it.” He said this image was “very well received by many” but “not at all in Africa.” There, people said, “a tent reminds us of refugee camps — we want to move beyond tents. In Africa, the preferred image was that of a family.”

Hollerich emphasized that Pope Francis had “insisted” on the participation of laypeople in what had originally been conceived by Pope Paul VI as a Synod of Bishops. “It was a controversial decision — some bishops didn’t like it. It was still a topic at the pre-conclave. But it did a lot of good for the overall atmosphere.”

Pope Leo XIV: ‘Continuity and discontinuity’

Regarding Pope Leo XIV, Hollerich sees “continuity in substance, discontinuity in form” when compared with Pope Francis, adding: “Every pope has his own personality.”

Shortly before his death, Pope Francis approved — while still in the hospital — a document that effectively extended the world synod process by nearly three and a half years by announcing an ecclesial assembly for 2028. Although Pope Leo XIV has since confirmed the plan, it remains unclear what exactly such an ecclesial assembly will entail.

Hollerich explained that such an assembly is “somewhat more flexible than a synod. Canon law dictates who may participate in a synod.” He continued: “I attended an ecclesial assembly in Latin America where participation was split as follows: 20% bishops, 20% priests and deacons, 20% religious, and 40% laypeople. That’s a good mix.”

This story was first published by CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Father Pedro Antonio Benítez Mestre is the new interim rector of the Pontifical University of Mexico. / Credit: EWTN Noticias

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 10, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

The Pontifical University of Mexico (UPM by its Spanish acronym) began a new era with the appointment of Father Pedro Antonio Benítez Mestre as interim rector, a position he will hold for two years.

The UPM, which currently has nearly 400 students, is the only Catholic institution of higher education in Mexico dedicated to priestly, religious, and lay formation in disciplines such as theology, philosophy, canon law, and the humanities. It was established in 1982 by decree of the Congregation for Catholic Education as the successor to the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, founded in 1551.

In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Benítez stated that every Catholic university, and especially a pontifical one with the purpose of forming the clergy as well as serving the laity, must have “a Christian identity,” meaning that its “source of theological and philosophical knowledge is revelation, these truths about Christ, about the Church, about humanity.”

A Catholic university must have “a clear missionary dimension, finding ways to pass on what it considers its treasure: its doctrinal, human, and spiritual heritage.”

He said the institution must also “enter the machinery of political and social discourse,” because a university that “does not seek to influence society would be sort of encapsulating itself in a kind of monastery. You can cultivate theology, law, but you are not seeking to impact society.”

The rector emphasized that one of his goals as head of the UPM is to make the institution “a benchmark for the transmission, creation, and research of Christian culture and evangelical values,” not only in Mexico but also throughout Latin America. 

Benítez said he was invited to assume leadership of the UPM by Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, archbishop primate of Mexico and grand chancellor of the university.

At the time, he was serving as adjunct professor in the department of systematic theology at the University of Navarra in Spain. While the invitation was a surprise, he accepted the assignment as “a wonderful challenge to help consolidate the university’s strengths, initiatives, and potential.”

The priest became rector on Aug. 26 with the appointment approved by the Holy See’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, following the departure of Father Alberto Anguiano García.

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

A family says good-bye to summer and welcomes the fall. / Credit: Zoteva/Shutterstock

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 10, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

After days of vacation this summer, many people have returned to their usual routines, leaving behind long, peaceful days and that feeling of freedom from schedules or obligations.

The return to school, the early-morning rush, and the many responsibilities of work and family life can sometimes lead to fatigue and even a certain melancholy.

However, this time also offers the opportunity to begin anew and embrace Christian joy and hope with faith.

Father Juan José Pérez-Soba, a diocesan priest and professor of family ministry at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome, offered some reflections on the end of summer and the beginning of fall.

He told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that “our actions arise from the presence of the people we love and therefore create obligations in which we feel that our hearts are filled up.” 

The obligations of the first days of September can be experienced as “a call from the Lord that contains a promise, … encouraging us to walk with the certainty of counting on the presence of God, who is a source of life,” he noted. 

He said that joy and happiness arise when “we discover the true meaning of what we do.” This will depend on whether our desires “are well-oriented toward building a beautiful life.”

“We must know how to recognize this daily: Even if we end up tired because of what we have done, we are joyful because it was beautiful,” he emphasized.

During vacation, we tend to have more free time to pray, read, and even meditate. Asked whether it is also necessary to begin a prayer routine upon returning from summer vacation, the priest said that “routine entails psychological rest from an action repeated many times, which requires less effort.”

“As with all love, habits are formed that we rely on to grow; this is also good for prayer,” he added.

Pérez also noted the communal dimension of prayer: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst” (Mt 18:20). Thus, he emphasized that “praying as a family is vital.”

Prayer should be included “in small communal acts: meals, getting up from and going to bed; also in parties and celebrations as a spontaneous act of thanksgiving. In this way, we discover that it is the love of God that unites everything,” he added.

Living the present and the everyday as a gift

Regarding the tendency in our society to “postpone happiness“ for some future time without fully experiencing the gift of the present, the priest said that “not focusing on what we are doing but on what we have to do next is very exhausting because it makes us twice as tense.”

This, for Pérez, “comes from a results-oriented mentality of wanting to respond to demands and not knowing how to enjoy what we are experiencing, because it isn’t considered a gift.”

He said we should know “how to recognize that God gives great unity to our lives through the blessings we receive from him, which allow us to read our history through God’s eyes.” 

"Thus, the year, as in the liturgy, is not about 'repeating' what is necessary, but rather about celebrating God coming into our lives, a memorial that reveals the newness of love, which in every moment asks us for something original," he said.

The priest emphasized that "happiness does not consist in feeling good about doing something, but in understanding that we remain faithful on God's path, in which, as with the disciples at Emmaus, he sets our hearts on fire by explaining the Scriptures and breaking bread."

"This is the time of grace, which is not an empty time, but rather filled with a presence of love that reminds us of the past, that lives on promises, and that knows how to be grateful for present blessings," he explained.

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

Pope Leo XIV greets a young child before his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 10, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Sep 10, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

In his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV explained that cries of pain, like those of Jesus in his final moments on the cross, instead of a sign of weakness, can express desire, surrender, and prayer.

A rainy morning in Rome prevented the Holy Father from spending much time greeting the faithful in St. Peter’s Square. Aboard the popemobile, he toured the square amid applause and cheers, stopping to give his blessing, especially to children.

The pope dedicated his catechesis at the weekly audience, which began just over five minutes late, to reflecting on the value of crying.

“At times, what we are unable to say in words, we express with the voice,” Leo said. “When the heart is full, it cries. And this is not always a sign of weakness; it can be a profound act of humanity.”

Although we are accustomed to thinking of crying as something disorderly to be repressed, the Gospel gives our cry a value, reminding us it can be “an invocation, a protest, a desire, a surrender,” the pope said.

“It can even be the extreme form of prayer, when there are no words left,” he continued.

“One cries not out of desperation, but out of desire. Jesus did not cry out against the Father, but to him. Even in silence, he was convinced that the Father was there,” the pontiff said. “And, in this way, he showed us that our hope can cry out, even when all seems lost.”

A cry that manifests the greatest love

Addressing pilgrims huddled under umbrellas in protection against sporadic rain showers, Pope Leo meditated on the “culmination of Jesus’ life in this world: his death on the cross.”

Specifically, he highlighted an important detail worthy of faithful contemplation: That “on the cross, Jesus does not die in silence.”

The pontiff explained that after fulfilling his mission on earth, from the cross, “Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.” For the Holy Father, “that cry contains everything: pain, abandonment, faith, offering. It is not only the voice of a body giving way, but the final sign of a life being surrendered.” 

He also recalled that the cry was preceded by a question, “one of the most heartrending that could be uttered: ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’”

Pope Leo XIV emphasized that, in that final moment, Jesus experiences silence, absence, and the abyss. However, according to the pontiff, “it is not a crisis of faith but the final stage of a love that is given up to the very end.”

“Jesus’ cry is not desperation, but sincerity, truth taken to the limit, trust that endures even when all is silent,” he emphasized.

He added that “it is there, in that broken man, that the greatest love manifests itself. It is there that we can recognize a God who does not remain distant but who traverses our pain to the very end.”

Jesus teaches us not to fear crying

The pope also explained that to cry can be a “spiritual gesture,” since it is often one’s first act after birth and a way to stay alive.

“One cries when one suffers, but also when one loves, one calls, one invokes. To cry out is saying who we are, that we do not want to fade away in silence, that we still have something to offer,” he added.

Leo invited those listening not to hold back their tears, because keeping everything inside “can slowly consume us.”

The pontiff insisted that “Jesus teaches us not to be afraid to cry out, as long as it is sincere, humble, addressed to the Father. A cry is never pointless if it is born of love.”

At the end of his message, Pope Leo XIV encouraged the faithful to learn from the Lord to give a “cry of hope when the hour of extreme trial comes.”

“Not to hurt, but to entrust ourselves. Not to shout at someone, but to open our hearts. If our cry is genuine, it can be the threshold of a new light, of a new birth,” he said.

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

Bishop Roger Coffi Anoumou of the Diocese of Lokossa in Benin represented the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) at the second African Climate Summit on Sept. 7-8, 2025, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. / Credit: SECAM

ACI Africa, Sep 10, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Members of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) are calling for methods that are “African, community-rooted, and just” in addressing climatic crises manifested in droughts, floods, and cyclones, among others, on the world’s second-largest continent.

In a statement read out during the Second Africa Climate Summit held at the Addis Ababa International Convention Centre in Ethiopia on Sept. 7–8, SECAM members said the climate crisis is both a moral and ecological emergency whose impact is greatly felt in Africa.

“Africa bears disproportionate impacts — droughts, cyclones, floods, desertification — despite contributing least to global emissions,” Africa’s Catholic bishops said in their statement for the event organized under the theme “Lighting the Way: Renewable Energy and the Dignity of Life.”

In the statement that Bishop Coffi Roger Anoumou of Benin’s Diocese of Lokossa read aloud, SECAM members said: “The Catholic Church in Africa calls for bold, fair, and urgent action to ensure that climate solutions are Africa-led, community-rooted, and just.”

On Africa-led climate solutions, the bishops said, “SECAM insists that Africa must not merely be a recipient of external agendas but a full architect of its ecological future.”

“Rural communities, rich in Indigenous wisdom, are laboratories of integral ecology and must shape pathways to sustainable development,” they said at the event they organized in collaboration with Laudato Si’ Movement in Africa and Caritas Africa.

To address the climate crisis, the bishops also called for the need to advance nature and technology-based approaches, saying: “The Church supports renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, and appropriate technologies that protect biodiversity and respect cultural heritage.”

“True solutions must integrate social equity, human dignity, and creation care, not short-term profit or ‘false solutions’ such as harmful offsets or extractive projects,” the bishops said.

The Church in Africa must move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but failing to bring about substantial change, the bishops said, and added: “We are still not facing the issues squarely, and the commitments made are weak and hardly fulfilled.”

“We cannot continue to make excuses; what is needed is courage and determination to move away decisively from fossil fuels, to embrace renewable sources of energy, and to make genuine lifestyle changes for the sake of our common home,” the bishops said.

In the three-page statement, the bishops in Africa further advocated for the scaling of renewable energy.

“SECAM urges investment in decentralized, community-driven renewable systems — especially solar — creating decent jobs, empowering women and youth, and reducing energy poverty while curbing carbon emissions,” they said.

“The future is this renewable energy, namely, solar panels. It is crucial to invest in clean energy and upgrade infrastructure to address Africa’s energy poverty,” the bishops said.

SECAM members also called for the mobilization of climate finance with justice, saying: “The Church calls on wealthy nations to repay their ecological debt through transparent, accessible, and non-indebted climate finance.”

“Loss and Damage and Adaptation Funds must be swiftly operationalized, reaching vulnerable communities directly and fostering resilience rather than dependency,” the bishops said in the statement.

As Catholic communities in Africa, SECAM members said, “we ask the leaders of nations and institutions to recognize their moral duty and commit to urgent and ambitious action to protect our common home and the most vulnerable.”

The bishops in Africa lamented that delay and half-measures in protecting the common home only deepen the suffering of the African people and jeopardize future generations.

“A deal must include finance for loss and damage, which is compensation for countries that are already suffering the devastating impacts of climate change but are not responsible for causing it,” they said, adding: “This is a matter of justice and solidarity with the poorest and most affected communities.”

The bishops also called for adaptation efforts to “safeguard food security, water systems, and livelihoods, prioritizing the poor and marginalized. Faith communities stand ready to collaborate in educating, mobilizing, and accompanying affected populations.”

“The Loss and Damage Fund must be urgently operationalized to respond to the devastating impacts of climate change that are already destroying lives and livelihoods,” the SECAM statement said.

“We must stop the expansion of fossil fuels and instead expand clean, renewable energy solutions that empower our communities, respect our cultures, and protect our common home,” the bishops said, adding: “The earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor.”

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