St. Andrew Catholic Church

Camp IdRaHaJe in Colorado on May 12, 2025, field a lawsuit against the state government over a state rule allowing males who identify as girls to be given access to girls’ showers, dressing areas, and sleeping facilities. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Camp IdRaHaJe

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 15, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

A Christian summer camp network is suing the Colorado government over a state rule allowing males who identify as girls to be given access to girls’ showers, dressing areas, and sleeping facilities.

Camp IdRaHaJe — which separates private facilities on the basis of sex rather than self-asserted “gender identity” — filed the federal lawsuit against Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood on Monday.

The camp, which derives its name from the 1922 Christian hymn “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” is protesting a regulation that requires access to gender-separated showers, sleeping facilities, changing rooms, and bathrooms in all children’s resident camps on the basis of “an individual’s gender identity” even when the gender identity is different from his or her biological sex.

The lawsuit notes that the camps believe and teach that God “has immutably created each person as either male or female in his image” and that “the differentiation of the sexes, male and female, is part of the divine image in the human race.” 

It adds that the camps’ beliefs, including its beliefs on biological sex, are integrated into all of its programs and operations.

Camp IdRaHaJe requested an exemption from the state rule because it conflicts with its religious beliefs and mission, but the department denied the request. The department’s rules generally allow for individualized exemptions to “any rule or standard” if it poses “an undue hardship” on any camp, but the government determined the religious objection did not qualify.

If the camps do not comply with the rule, their licenses could be revoked or suspended and they could face fines. According to the lawsuit, the camps open on June 8 and will not operate in compliance with these rules. The camps also need to certify compliance with all departmental rules to have their licenses renewed in June, which the lawsuit asserts they will not be able to do.

The camp network is asking the federal judge to immediately prevent the department from enforcing the rule against its camps, arguing that any enforcement would violate the group’s First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. 

The lawsuit also contends that the rule infringes on the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, which safeguards the rights of protected classes, including those defined by religion.

“Those regulations would require the camp to violate its religious beliefs by altering its policies and operations that are based on its religious beliefs about sexuality and gender,” states the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of the camp by lawyers at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

Camp IdRaHaJe has operated since 1948 and was established for “the purpose of winning souls to Jesus Christ through the spreading of the Gospel,” the “edifying … of the believers through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God,” and the “evangelizing of campers through witnessing and missions,” according to its website.

The camp network serves children between the ages of 6 and 17. The camps are attended by about 2,500 to 3,000 children every summer.

Many families “choose to send their children to IdRaHaJe camps because of their Christian programs and education,” according to the lawsuit.

Andrea Dill, who serves as legal counsel for ADF, said in a statement that the government “has no place telling religious summer camps that it’s ‘lights out’ for upholding their religious beliefs about human sexuality.” 

“Camp IdRaHaJe exists to present the truth of the Gospel to children who are building character and lifelong memories,” Dill continued. 

“But the Colorado government is putting its dangerous agenda — that is losing popularity across the globe — ahead of its kids. We are urging the court to allow IdRaHaJe to operate as it has for over 75 years: as a Christian summer camp that accepts all campers without fear of being punished for its beliefs,” she said. 

Pope Leo XIV walks in the corridor of the third loggia of the Apostolic Palace, where the papal apartment is located, on May 12, 2025, in Vatican City. / Credit: Vatican Media/Vatican Pool/Getty Images

Vatican City, May 15, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV is expected to move into the official papal residence, an apartment on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace, departing from the living arrangements used by Pope Francis for 12 years.

The papal apartment, which is a series of rooms wrapping around the Vatican’s Sixtus V Courtyard, was the traditional home of pontiffs for over a century before Pope Francis eschewed those living quarters for a suite in the Vatican’s guesthouse, the Casa Santa Marta.

Pope Francis explained his decision as “a need to live my life with others” in a 2013 interview. The late pope said the papal apartment is “old, tastefully decorated and large, but not luxurious.”

Francis’ choice of living space was commonly interpreted as a sign of his simplicity and rejection of papal pomp, though U.S. Jesuit Father James Martin said Leo’s expected move into the papal apartment was a prudent decision.

Martin called it understandable that Leo might move back into the Apostolic Palace, given the busy and crowded nature of the Vatican guesthouse compared with the privacy of the papal apartment.

“Leo’s move should not be taken as a sign either of a critique of Pope Francis (whom he has praised repeatedly and whose legacy he formally told the cardinals he wishes to continue) or as him not living ‘simply,’” the author wrote on X.

Pope Francis lived in a second-floor bedroom with a sitting room attached but would go frequently to the Apostolic Palace for meetings and audiences. Toward the end of his pontificate, he would also receive visitors in various meeting rooms of the guesthouse.

According to people who have been there, the Santa Marta guesthouse posed significant security challenges, and when the pope made it his official residence after his 2013 election, a section of the second floor was closed to guests for security.

The quarters in the Apostolic Palace include a chapel, bedroom and bathroom, papal study, office for the pope’s secretary, a living room, dining room, kitchen, and library for meetings. Since John Paul II’s pontificate, which ended in illness, the apartment has also included an outfitted medical suite that was later expanded to include dental equipment. There is also a roof garden and rooms for housekeeping staff.

The Apostolic Palace is a large building situated just to the northeast of St. Peter’s Basilica, inside Vatican City. One corner of the building overlooks St. Peter’s Square.

Besides the papal apartment, the Apostolic Palace — also sometimes called the Palace of Sixtus V for the pope who had most of it built — contains Vatican offices, the Vatican library, and some of the rooms now part of the Vatican Museums.

Several of the windows of the papal apartment overlook St. Peter’s Square, including the window at which recent popes, including Pope Francis, would appear weekly on Sundays and holy days to pray the Angelus or Regina Caeli and give a brief reflection. On May 11, Pope Leo sang the Regina Caeli from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time.

Following recent convention, the papal apartment will likely undergo some renovations and customization prior to Leo’s move-in. Since his election, the pope has been continuing to sleep in the Vatican apartment he used as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, which is in the Palazzo Sant’Uffizio, the building that also houses the offices of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Charitable organizations distribute food to displaced people in shelter tents in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on June 9, 2024. / Credit: Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 15, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

The global number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) around the world skyrocketed to a record high of 83.4 million in 2024, according to a report released Tuesday, marking a more than 100% increase in six years. 

“Conflicts and violence have left 73.5 million people displaced and [natural] disasters 9.8 million, in both cases the highest figures on record,” the latest edition of the Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) finds.

According to the UNHCR, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees agency, internally displaced persons are those who have been forced to flee their homes by conflict, violence, persecution, or disasters; however, unlike refugees, they remain within their own country. 

The total number of globally displaced people in 2023 was 75.9 million, while the first GRID in 2015 recorded 40.5 million.

Conducted by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council, this year’s report listed ongoing wars such as those in Sudan, Gaza, and Ukraine as well as natural disasters like hurricanes Helene and Milton as driving factors behind the record-breaking numbers of people forced to leave their homes.

Sudan recorded the highest number of displaced people in the world, at 11.6 million, followed by Syria at 7.4 million. In Gaza, the report estimates that more than 3.2 million displacements occurred in 2024 while in Ukraine it recorded about 3.7 million. For its part, the U.S. had more than 11 million displacements due to mass evacuations following hurricanes. 

“The ever-increasing number of IDPs results in part from the insufficient support [internally displaced people] receive to put an end to their displacement by returning home or making a new home elsewhere and addressing their related needs,” the report states, noting that the Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen, where conflicts have been ongoing for years or even decades, recorded their highest-ever numbers of displacements. 

During a jubilee year audience on Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV urged thousands of Eastern-rite Catholics present from around the world, many of whom come from places experiencing violence, not to abandon their ancestral lands and assured them that he will do everything he can to bring peace there.

“I thank God for those Christians — Eastern and Latin alike — who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them,” he said. “Christians must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence. Please, let us strive for this!” 

In 2020, the Vatican’s migrant and refugee office released guidelines on how the Church ought to respond to the problem of people who have been internally displaced within their own countries due to conflict or disaster.

The document, the “Pastoral Orientation on Internally Displaced People,” calls on Catholic dioceses and organizations to “welcome, protect, promote, and integrate” people who have been internally displaced.

The 47-page document quotes the late Pope Francis, who noted in his New Year address to the Holy See Diplomatic Corps in 2020 that because consistent protections for internally displaced people do not exist in the same way as they do for refugees, “the result is that internally displaced persons do not always receive the protection they deserve.”

CREDO is a new, global streaming platform for faith-driven content launching on May 28, 2025. / Credit: Castletown Media

CNA Staff, May 15, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

A new global streaming platform for faith-driven content will launch worldwide on May 28 and serve as the exclusive streaming home of “Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality,” the top-grossing faith-based documentary of the year at the box office.

CREDO, founded by Tim Moriarty, CEO and founder of Castletown Media, is also on track to stream Castletown’s newest project, “Leo XIV: A Pontiff’s Path,” later this year.

The platform will allow filmmakers to showcase their work, connect directly with audiences, and earn fair compensation while viewers enjoy on-demand, a la carte rentals with no subscriptions or recurring fees. Content will be able to be viewed on computers, mobile devices, and on smart TVs. 

Castletown Media’s newest project, “Leo XIV: A Pontiff’s Path,” will follow the journey of the new Holy Father — from his Chicago roots through his theological formation and missionary service. The film will weave together interviews with those who knew him and offer an immersive portrait of his missionary work in Peru, tracing his vocational journey from a humble Augustinian friar to the supreme pontiff.

The film invites viewers to meet the man behind the title — how his Chicago roots, Augustinian formation, and missionary zeal will shape his ministry as vicar of Christ, Moriarty told CNA in an exclusive interview.

“Within hours of his first appearance on the loggia, our cameras were rolling in Rome and Chicago, and this week our team is in Peru, uncovering the experiences that prepared him to shepherd the global Church,” he said.

On CREDO, starting on May 28, viewers will be able to watch “Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality,” which explores the life of Acutis and the lessons he offers young people regarding the challenges of the digital world. It features Acutis’ family and friends sharing their firsthand experiences of the soon-to-be saint and his impact on their lives, in addition to well-known voices in the Catholic Church and technology experts who offer a model for young people to engage in the digital world.

“Catholic audiences shouldn’t have to settle for anything less than artistic excellence,” Moriarty said. “With CREDO, rigorous curation meets state-of-the-art streaming, so families can hit play knowing they’ll experience beautifully crafted, spiritually sound films. It’s only fitting that our launch title is ‘Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality,’ which explores the life of the first millennial saint who used digital media to spread the Gospel. His story perfectly encapsulates everything CREDO stands for.”

Pope Leo XIV meets with the prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, on May 14, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, May 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday briefly discussed the revision of Opus Dei’s statutes with the apostolate’s prelate, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, a revision that was postponed following the death of Pope Francis on April 21, two days before the convening of Opus Dei’s general congress, from which the revisions proposed for approval were to be issued.

According to the Opus Dei communications office in Rome, the May 14 encounter was “a brief meeting in which the pope expressed his closeness and affection.”

“In a familial atmosphere of trust, Leo XIV gave the prelate and the auxiliary vicar his paternal blessing” and, at the end of the audience, mentioned “the feasts of Our Lady celebrated on the day of his election,” the statement reads.

During the meeting, in which Ocáriz was accompanied by his auxiliary vicar, Monsignor Mariano Fazio, one of the topics discussed was the delayed statutory revisions.

“Among other topics, the Holy Father asked about the current study of the statutes of the prelature and listened with great interest to the explanations given to him,” the official statement noted.

Opus Dei had planned to revise its statutes to adapt them to Pope Francis’ motu proprio Ad Charisma Tuendum. In essence, the pope’s directive placed Opus Dei under the direction of the Dicastery for the Clergy rather than the Dicastery for Bishops and ended the practice of elevating the prelate of Opus Dei to the rank of bishop.

Pope Francis had also requested that Opus Dei revise its statutes to reflect this new structure, which was to be finalized during the general congress. This revision was to be presented as a proposal to the Holy See for approval following its adoption by the assembly.

However, the general congress ultimately focused solely on the tasks of choosing a new general council and central advisory board, positions that are selected every eight years.

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

Candlelight procession at Fatima on May 12, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of Shrine of Fatima/EWTN

ACI Prensa Staff, May 14, 2025 / 17:59 pm (CNA).

Approximately 470,000 pilgrims gathered in Fátima, Portugal, on May 12–13 to commemorate the 108th anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The prevalent theme of the two-day event was a call for hope amid the world’s conflicts and also prayers for the pontificate of Leo XIV. 

At the end of the closing Mass, before the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Bishop José Ornelas of Leiria-Fátima consecrated the pontificate of Leo XIV to the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

“We are at your feet, the bishops … and this multitude of pilgrims, on the 108th anniversary of your apparition to the little shepherds in this Cova da Iria to consecrate to you the ministry of the current successor of Peter and bishop of Rome, the Holy Father Leo XIV,” Ornelas prayed.

He also asked the Mother of God to grant the new pope tenderness, discernment, courage, and the ability, inspired by the message of Fátima, to “continue to send forth the urgent cry for peace to the world,” as he did in his first words in Rome after his election: “Peace be with you all!”

Nearly half a million pilgrims 

Despite occasional rain, the faithful participated in the traditional candlelight procession on the evening of May 12, forming an impressive sea of ​​light on the shrine’s esplanade.

Brazilian Cardinal Jaime Spengler, who presided over the International Anniversary Pilgrimage to Fátima, highlighted Mary’s role as “an intercessor on behalf of all who seek to make her sentiments their own.”

“Mary is a mother! A mother who gives birth, cares for, accompanies, guides, corrects, and encourages! That is why we contemplate her and let her watch over us. Let us allow ourselves to be guided by her; let us listen to what she continues to tell us: Do whatever my son tells you! Dear mother, accompany us; watch over us,” the cardinal said during the procession.

On May 13, the anniversary of the first apparition of the Mother of God to the shepherd children in 1917, Spengler — who celebrated the closing Mass of the events — noted that the world is going through “uncertain, tense, and complex times” in which “some perhaps only think of themselves.”

Twenty-seven bishops participated in the Mass, including two cardinals: António Marto, bishop emeritus of Leiria-Fátima, and Fortunato Frezza, canon of St. Peter’s Basilica, as well as 282 priests and 14 deacons.

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

A Planned Parenthood facility in Minneapolis. / Credit: Ken Wolter/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, May 14, 2025 / 17:29 pm (CNA).

In a recently released report, Charlotte Lozier Institute found that life-affirming women’s health centers outnumber Planned Parenthood locations 15 to 1.

As pro-lifers look to federally defund Planned Parenthood, the policy and research institute developed a comprehensive report of life-affirming community health centers across the country. 

The institute, which is the research arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America, launched “Real Choices,” which documents the number of federal qualified health centers in each state.

Designed to highlight the work of life-affirming clinics, the webpage reflects the reality that these clinics outnumber Planned Parenthood locations.

The report found more than 8,800 community health centers that offer women’s health services in comparison with the 579 Planned Parenthood locations in the U.S. 

Of the community health centers, 5,500 are federally qualified and receive funds from the Health Resources and Services Administration for primary care for underserved populations. 

Planned Parenthood, meanwhile, received nearly $700 million in taxpayer funding in 2022 with a record-high number of abortions approaching 400,000, the report noted. 

Even in some of the most pro-choice states in the nation, life-affirming health centers outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities. For instance, in the state of Colorado, there were 135 community women’s health centers and 14 Planned Parenthood locations. In New York, there were 327 health centers and 52 Planned Parenthood locations. 

The main author of the research, Senior Research Associate Tessa Cox, said that “women deserve comprehensive care from providers who offer real health care, not abortion.”

Nearly 70% of women who have had abortions “described them as unwanted or inconsistent with their preferences and values,” Cox said in a statement shared with CNA.

The report found that nearly 97% of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy resolution services were abortions, and for every one adoption referral, Planned Parenthood provided 187 abortions. 

“Their business is abortion,” Karen Czarnecki, executive director of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, said of Planned Parenthood. 

“Planned Parenthood isn’t meeting the needs of these women, especially considering recent reports of botched services,” Czarnecki said in a statement shared with CNA.

Czarnecki cited a recent story from The New York Times that details “failed abortions, misplaced IUDs, and inadequately trained staff” allegedly at Planned Parenthood locations around the country. 

“This report makes one thing abundantly clear: Women aren’t receiving comprehensive medical care at Planned Parenthood, despite what the abortion lobby claims, because their business is abortion,” Czarnecki said.

The report found that there are more than 3,000 women’s health clinics in rural areas, meaning there are more than five times as many rural clinics as Planned Parenthood clinics in total. Rural health clinics receive funding from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to ensure care is available in rural areas with health care shortages, according to the report.  

For instance, in Vermont, which has the highest rural population in the country, there are eight Planned Parenthood clinics, but there are 35 community women’s health centers. 

According to the report, 60% of rural Americans are served by rural health care locations, and federally qualified health centers serve 1 in 10 Americans. 

“Women, especially ones in underserved areas, deserve access to quality health care,” Czarnecki said. 

“We know that many women are looking for better options,” Cox added. “Community health centers give those options, providing care in underserved communities and filling critical health care gaps.”

A group of pilgrims will seek to publicly witness to the truth that Christ is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament by accompanying the Eucharist along a 3,300-mile trek from Indianapolis to Los Angeles that begins Sunday, May 18, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage

CNA Staff, May 14, 2025 / 15:56 pm (CNA).

Young men and women preparing to take part in the 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage spoke at a Tuesday press conference about their preparation and excitement for the 3,300-mile pilgrimage, set to kick off in Indianapolis this Sunday.

The 36-day pilgrimage, which will likely attract thousands of participants to walk with and adore Christ in the Eucharist, is a response to the cultural and spiritual needs of today, said Leslie Reyes-Hernandez, a pilgrim and a high school algebra teacher from Phoenix. 

“If anything, I think this [pilgrimage] is an invitation for something that the world is hungry for, and the Eucharist is our anchor, and the pilgrimage is a public expression of hope,” she said. 

Reyes-Hernandez is one of eight young pilgrims who will seek to publicly witness to the truth that Christ is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament by accompanying the Eucharist the entire route from Indianapolis to Los Angeles, crossing through 10 states and taking part in numerous special events. 

The pilgrims will be accompanied by a rotating group of priest chaplains, and any person wishing to join for small portions of the route will be able to sign up to do so for free.

Preparation for the once-in-a-lifetime walking pilgrimage experience has involved both spiritual and practical aspects, and the pilgrims said they hope the experience will have a lasting impact on their own lives and enable them to continue sharing their faith with others. The team has convened for weekly formation meetings to prepare spiritually and build team cohesion.

Rachel Levy, who works for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis serving Catholic young adults, described preparing “spiritually, just trying to keep a consistent prayer life,” attending daily Mass, and spending time in adoration. Practically, she’s been “trying to get out and walk a little bit more than normal,” getting prepped for the upcoming extended periods of time outside and getting some “good walking shoes.”

Asked what the Eucharist has done for her in her life, Levy recounted a moment in adoration in front of the tabernacle where, feeling “unworthy” and “unequipped” for ministry due to past brokenness, she experienced a profound sense that the Lord “loved me just as much in the worst of the worst of my sin as he did in that moment that I was sitting in front of the tabernacle, and that he loves us each each moment of every day the same no matter what we’re doing. His love is constant.” 

Johnathan “Johnny” Silvino Hernandez-Jose, who resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and helps run his family’s construction company, said he anticipates challenges during the pilgrimage experience: “walking every day, talking every day, lack of sleep.” He described a previous walking pilgrimage experience at World Youth Day 2023 in Portugal that touched him deeply. 

“Emotionally, maybe we’ll get a little drained,” he noted, anticipating the intensity of constant interaction during the pilgrimage and the need to manage social energy. He also mentioned overcoming personal shyness and not taking any perceived shortfalls too hard on himself. Ultimately, though, he said he sees the pilgrimage as a “walk with Christ, the trust that we put with him and the love that we have for him.”

“The root of this is spiritual,” Hernandez-Jose continued. “I think when anything comes our way, these challenges, I think all we could do is really trust God and just pray with each other. And honestly, for me, what I like to do is just offer it up, you know?”

Stephen Fuhrmann, a prospective Texas A&M University graduate, said he is excited to start the pilgrimage and, with his fellow pilgrims, “just be thrown into a van and just have to live life together with Jesus, and what a beautiful thing that will be.”

Fuhrmann said he was inspired by the witness of 2024 pilgrim Charlie McCullough, who is returning as team leader for 2025. He looks forward to getting to know “each other’s stories and each other’s lives and how each of us have encountered Jesus in a very special way.”

“Then, also, to take that to the people we encounter and the people who we want to show who Jesus Christ is in the Eucharist, it’s just extremely exciting,” Fuhrmann said.

Arthur “Ace” Acuña, who works in campus ministry at Princeton University, was drawn to the pilgrimage by the pivotal role the Eucharist played in his own reversion to the faith and his desire to “see Jesus do what he does best, which is draw all things to himself.” 

He said he looks forward to “seeing people fall in love with him ... fall in love with the Eucharist and the love that he’s offering them, because he’s passing by. And just like in the Gospels, he encountered so many people.”

Acuña also emphasized the importance, especially during the Church’s ongoing Jubilee Year of Hope, of carrying Jesus not only into cities and rural areas but also into prisons and other places that experience suffering or isolation, seeing it as a “testament to the fact that Jesus wants to encounter everyone” and bringing healing and “light into the dark places.”

Frances Webber, originally from Virginia but currently living in Minnesota, is a senior in college studying theology and business. She said she hopes, through the pilgrimage experience, to reach those questioning their faith and remind them that “Jesus doesn’t want to disappoint you; he’s not going to disappoint you.”

How to take part

The 2025 pilgrimage begins Sunday, May 18, with an opening Mass at St. John’s Parish in Indianapolis. This year’s pilgrimage is a continuation of last year’s unprecedented four simultaneous Eucharistic pilgrimages, which started at the edges of the country and eventually converged in Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress in July 2024.

The 2025 Drexel Route, named for St. Katharine Drexel (1858–1955), will take the procession through 10 states — including the country’s two most populous, California and Texas — as well as through 20 Catholic dioceses and four Eastern Catholic eparchies.

Masses at stops along the way, which include numerous shrines and cathedrals, will be offered in various languages and liturgical styles, including the Traditional Latin Mass, Gospel choir, praise and worship, Vietnamese, and Spanish, representing five different rites of the Church.

In keeping with the ongoing Jubilee Year of Hope in the worldwide Catholic Church, the focus of the Drexel Route is on “hope and healing,” with visits planned not only to churches but also to prisons and nursing homes.

Service projects and encounters with the poor and those in need are planned, including opportunities to serve the homeless, visit hospice facilities, and participate in a service project with Catholic Charities.

Special Masses and prayers will be offered for the Wichita, Kansas, plane crash victims; at the Oklahoma City bombing memorial; at the southern border; and in areas impacted by wildfires in Los Angeles. Numerous holy men and women have ties to planned stops, such as the tomb of Venerable Fulton Sheen in Illinois and the Shrine of Blessed Stanley Rother in Oklahoma City.

The schedule of public events for each diocese along the Drexel Route is now officially available on the National Eucharistic Congress website. Prayer intentions for the Perpetual Pilgrims to carry with them on their journey can be submitted here.

Pope Leo XIV meets with Italian tennis star Jannick Sinner on May 14, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, May 14, 2025 / 14:48 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV met Italian tennis star Jannik Sinner at the Vatican on Wednesday. 

Photos shared by Vatican News show the newly elected pope, who has described himself as “quite the amateur tennis player,” warmly greeting the 23-year-old Italian and his family as well as the president of the Italian Tennis Federation, Alberto Binaghi.

Sinner, who is ranked No. 1 in the world, is from a predominantly German-speaking region in Italy’s far north. He became the first Italian man to win a major tennis title since 1976 when he bested Daniil Medvedev at the Australian Open in 2024, earning kudos from the late Pope Francis. 

Sinner is currently competing in the 2025 Italian Open, taking place in Rome. 

Greeting the pope in a room off the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall, Sinner presented Pope Leo with a tennis racket and ball and asked the pope in Italian if he wanted to play. 

The pope responded: “Here we’ll break something. Best not to!”

Leo also joked that “Wimbledon would let” him compete in his white cassock, a reference to the famous rule at the All England Club tennis tournament that players must wear white.

The pope had previously been asked by journalists about whether he would like to play tennis again — perhaps a charity match — and “seemed game” but quipped that “we can’t invite Sinner,” in an apparent pun on the English meaning of Sinner’s last name, the AP reported Monday. 

When asked about the pope’s comment, Sinner genially responded that it’s “a good thing for us tennis players” that Leo likes the sport and expressed openness to hitting with the pontiff in the future.

Pope Leo XIV gives the homily at Mass with the cardinale electors in the Sistine Chapel on May 9, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, May 14, 2025 / 14:18 pm (CNA).

The Vatican announced that Pope Leo XIV has decided to “maintain an active presence on social media through official papal accounts” on X @Pontifex and Instagram, creating a new one for the latter platform.

In a statement May 13, the Dicastery for Communication said “Leo XIV inherits the X @Pontifex accounts used by Pope Francis and previously by Benedict XVI,” and a new account has also been opened on Instagram.

“On Instagram, the new pope’s account is called @Pontifex – Pope Leo XIV, and is the only official account of the Holy Father on this platform in continuity with Pope Francis’ account, @Franciscus,” the dicastery noted, adding that the content published by Pope Francis on X “will soon be archived in the appropriate section of the Holy See’s institutional website,” Vatican.va.

It also added that “the content published on the @Franciscus account will continue to be accessible as an ‘Ad Memoriam’ commemorative archive.”

The Vatican noted that “the presence of the popes on social media began on Dec. 12, 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI launched the @Pontifex account on what was then Twitter.”

The account, which is published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Polish, Arabic, and Latin, “has a total of 52 million followers.”

The dicastery highlighted Pope Francis’ activity on social media, with “a total of approximately 50,000 posts published on the nine @Pontifex accounts and on @Franciscus.”

“In this way, he has accompanied us almost every day of his pontificate with brief evangelical messages or exhortations for peace, social justice, and care for creation; and he has achieved great engagement, especially in difficult times (in 2020, a year of exceptional numbers due to the pandemic, his messages were viewed 27 billion times),” the dicastery stated.

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