Month: October 2025

 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics to join him in praying that members of different religions would work together to make life better for everyone rather than allowing their different beliefs to be used “as weapons or walls.”

Choosing “collaboration between different religious traditions” as his prayer intention for the month of October coincides with the 60th anniversary of “Nostra Aetate,” the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on the church’s relationship to other religions. The document was promulgated Oct. 28, 1965.

The pope’s monthly video sharing his prayer intention for October was distributed Sept. 30 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.

“Let us pray that believers in different religious traditions might work together to defend and promote peace, justice and human fraternity,” he said in the video.

“We live in a world full of beauty but also wounded by deep divisions,” Pope Leo said. “Sometimes, religions, instead of uniting us, become a cause of confrontation.”

The pope prayed that the Lord would purify people’s hearts “so that we may recognize what unites us and, from there, learn again how to listen and collaborate without destroying.”

The video includes footage of: St. John Paul II’s 1986 interreligious meeting in Assisi; Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Rome synagogue in 2010; Pope Francis signing the Document on Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi in 2019; and Pope Leo’s meetings with various religious leaders.

“May the concrete examples of peace, justice and fraternity in religions inspire us to believe that it is possible to live and work together, beyond our differences,” Pope Leo prayed in the video.

“May religions not be used as weapons or walls but rather lived as bridges and prophecy: making the dream of the common good credible, accompanying life, sustaining hope and being the yeast of unity in a fragmented world,” he concluded.

(OSV News) – Catholic bishops are expressing their sorrow over a deadly attack at a Michigan house of worship, which took place just weeks after a mass shooting at a Minnesota Catholic church.

At least four were killed when a gunman drove his truck into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, during a Sept. 28 service, then set the church building on fire while shooting with a semiautomatic rifle into the congregation.

Eight victims remain in the hospital, with one in critical condition.

There may be more victims. In a Sept. 28 press conference following the attack, Grand Blanc Township police chief William Renye said, “We do believe we will find additional victims once we have that scene secured.”

The suspect, 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford of Burton, Michigan, died in a shootout with law enforcement. Investigators believe an accelerant was used in the fire, which gutted the chapel. They also found three improvised explosive devices linked to Sanford, a former Marine and Iraq War veteran.

Survivor Brian Taylor — who spoke to media immediately afterwards while still wearing his bloodstained shirt — told ABC Detroit affiliate WXYZ that the gunman had been dressed in camouflage as he opened fire.

A motive for the attack remains unknown, although Reuben Coleman, acting special agent in charge for the FBI’s Detroit field office, told media Sept. 28 that his agency “is investigating this (the attack) as an act of targeted violence.”

Authorities are also looking into whether the shooting’s timing was connected to the passing of Russell M. Nelson, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who died peacefully at his Salt Lake City home Sept. 28. Nelson, who had been a respected heart surgeon, was 101 years old.

In a statement provided to OSV News, Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing, Michigan, in whose diocesan territory the Grand Blanc congregation is located, assured the Latter-day Saints congregation of his prayers and “assuring those who mourn, and those who are injured” of his “solace and support.”

“Any place of worship should be a sanctuary of peace,” Bishop Boyea said Sept. 29. “The violation of such a haven, especially upon a Sunday morning, makes yesterday’s act of mass violence even more shocking. I commend the first responders for heroically assisting at the scene and for working to safeguard other local places of worship.”

In a Sept. 29 statement posted to his X account, Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger of Detroit said he was “heartbroken” by the attack.

“In this time of immense sorrow, I ask that we stand in solidarity with the victims, their families, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” he wrote. “Let us pray for peace and stability in our world and let us commit ourselves to actions that help to create that peace.”

Bishop Robert J. Brennan of Brooklyn, New York, posting on X Sept. 28, said the attack was “beyond disturbing.”

“We pray earnestly for those who died and were injured, for their families and for all those who were gathered on a Sunday morning to pray,” he added.

Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul-Minneapolis noted in a Sept. 28 statement that the Catholic and LDS communities now share a common sorrow.

“Just last month, the regional leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints extended their sincere condolences and prayers to the faithful of this Archdiocese in the aftermath of the shooting at Annunciation Church, expressing their closeness to us at that challenging time,” said Archbishop Hebda, referencing the deadly Aug. 27 targeted attack that killed two children and injured 21 other individuals during a school liturgy at a Minneapolis parish.

“I will be promising them our prayers for those who were killed, as well as for those who were injured, their families, and all who present in that House of Worship,” said Archbishop Hebda. “Please join me in praying for them and for an end to senseless violence around the globe.”

In a Sept. 28 post on his platform Truth Social, President Donald Trump — noting he had been briefed on the incident — said, “This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”

While members of the Church of Latter-day Saints, sometimes in the past referred to as Mormons, call themselves Christians, the Catholic Church holds that the Latter-day Saints’ teachings about the nature of God, Jesus Christ and baptism fundamentally diverge from the trinitarian Christianity handed down from the apostles.

While Catholics believe the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three persons in one God, Latter-day Saints view the Trinity consisting of three separate gods with the Father above all, and the Son and the Holy Spirit respectively subordinate. Catholics understand Jesus as the incarnate Son of God, while Latter-day Saints do not regard Jesus as one with the Father in either nature or substance.

Despite crucial doctrinal differences, however, members of both faiths “often find themselves working together on a range of problems regarding the common good of the entire human race,” wrote then-Father, and now Cardinal, Luis Ladaria, in a 2001 Vatican document. “It can be hoped therefore that through further studies, dialogue and good will, there can be progress in reciprocal understanding and mutual respect.”

Following the Grand Blanc attack, prayer and charity are at the heart of that dialogue.

“In an era marked by hostilities and division, let us all come together in faith and compassion, upholding the fundamental right to worship freely and without fear,” said Archbishop Weisenburger in his statement. “May God’s infinite love and mercy embrace and heal us all.”

“Let us remember that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Hence, in this moment of tragedy, let us all draw closer to Jesus, Prince of Peace. Our Lady, Comforter of the Afflicted, pray for us,” said Bishop Boyea.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV announced he will proclaim St. John Henry Newman a doctor of the church Nov. 1 during the Jubilee of the World of Education.

Speaking after Mass Sept. 28 for the Jubilee of Catechists, the pope said St. Newman “contributed decisively to the renewal of theology and to the understanding of the development of Christian doctrine.”

The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints had announced July 31 that Pope Leo “confirmed the affirmative opinion” of the cardinals and bishops who are members of the dicastery “regarding the title of Doctor of the Universal Church which will soon be conferred on Saint John Henry Newman, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Founder of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in England.”

St. Newman was born in London Feb. 21, 1801, was ordained an Anglican priest, became Catholic in 1845, was made a cardinal in 1879 by Pope Leo XIII and died in Edgbaston, near Birmingham, England, in 1890.

Even before St. Newman was canonized by Pope Francis Oct. 13, 2019, there were calls for him to be named one of the three dozen doctors of the church — men and women saints, from both the Christian East and West, who are honored for particularly important contributions to theology and spirituality.

The 37 saints currently recognized as doctors of the church include early church fathers such as Sts. Jerome, John Chrysostom and Augustine, and theologians such as Sts. Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure and John of the Cross, but also St. Therese of Lisieux, who was honored by St. John Paul II in 1997, despite her lack of scholarly achievement.

The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints said 20 bishops’ conferences had petitioned for St. Newman to be declared a doctor of the church, including the bishops of England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia.

“His thought has had a significant impact on 20th-century theology, especially on the Second Vatican Council,” the dicastery said. “Several popes, from Leo XIII to Francis, have drawn from his authoritative teaching in their pontifical magisterium.”

Pope Francis authorized the dicastery to begin the process for the declaration in May 2024 and that September, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said that “there were no doubts about the excellence and the quality of the saint’s writings, expressing a completely positive judgment on his ’eminens doctrina’ (eminent teaching).”

Consultants to the dicastery unanimously supported the petition, the dicastery said, as did the cardinals and bishops who are members of the dicastery.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – When catechists teach, their aim is not simply to pass on information about the faith but to “place the word of life in hearts, so that it may bear the fruits of a good life,” Pope Leo XIV said.

“The Gospel announces to us that everyone’s life can change because Christ rose from the dead. This event is the truth that saves us; therefore, it must be known and proclaimed,” the pope told some 20,000 catechists from more than 115 countries attending the Jubilee for Catechists.

But just proclaiming the Good News is not enough, the pope said in his homily at Mass Sept. 28 in St. Peter’s Square. “It must be loved. It is love that leads us to understand the Gospel.”

During the liturgy, Pope Leo formally installed in the ministry of catechist 39 women and men from 16 countries, including David Spesia, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis, and Marilyn Santos, associate director of the secretariat.

Before the pope gave his homily, a deacon called the names of each of the 39, who answered in Italian, “Eccomi,” or “present.” After the homily, Pope Leo presented each of them with a crucifix.

“Let your ministry ever be grounded in a deep life of prayer, let it be built up in sound doctrine and animated by genuine apostolic zeal,” the pope told them. “As stewards of the mission entrusted to the church by Christ, you must always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”

The Gospel reading at the Mass was the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16:19-31.

In the parable, the pope said, Lazarus is ignored by the rich man “and yet God is close to him and remembers his name.”

But the rich man has no name in the parable, “because he has lost himself by forgetting his neighbor,” the pope said. “He is lost in the thoughts of his heart: full of things and empty of love. His possessions do not make him a good person.”

“The story that Christ tells us is, unfortunately, very relevant today,” Pope Leo said. “At the doorstep of today’s opulence stands the misery of entire peoples, ravaged by war and exploitation.”

“Through the centuries, nothing seems to have changed: how many Lazaruses die before the greed that forgets justice, before profits that trample on charity, and before riches that are blind to the pain of the poor,” he said.

In the parable, the rich man dies and is cast into the netherworld. He asks Abraham to send a messenger to his brothers to warn them and call them to repent.

The Gospel story and the words of Scripture that catechists are called to share are not meant to “disappoint or discourage” people, but to awaken their consciences, the pope said.

Echoing the words of Pope Francis, Pope Leo said the heart of catechesis is the proclamation that “the Lord Jesus is risen, the Lord Jesus loves you, and he has given his life for you; risen and alive, he is close to you and waits for you every day.”

That truth, he said, should prompt people to love God and to love others in return.

God’s love, he said, “transforms us by opening our hearts to the word of God and to the face of our neighbor.”

Pope Leo reminded parents that they are the first to teach their children about God, his promises and commandments.

And he thanked everyone who has been a witness to others of faith, hope and charity, cooperating in the church’s “pastoral work by listening to questions, sharing in struggles and serving the desire for justice and truth that dwells in the human conscience.”

Teaching the faith is a community effort, he said, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church “is the ‘travel guidebook’ that protects us from individualism and discord, because it attests to the faith of the entire Catholic Church.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In the first major appointment of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV chose an Italian expert in canon law to succeed him as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Archbishop Filippo Iannone, 67, has led the Dicastery for Legislative Texts since 2018 and will begin his new role Oct. 15, the Vatican press office announced Sept. 26.

Pope Leo, as Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, led the Dicastery for Bishops and the pontifical commission from early 2023 until his election as pope in May.

The dicastery coordinates the search for candidates to fill the office of bishop in most of the Latin-rite dioceses around the world and makes recommendations about their appointments to the pope. It also deals with setting up, uniting, suppressing dioceses, changing diocesan boundaries, setting up military ordinariates and ordinariates for Catholics who have come from the Anglican Communion.

The dicastery “cooperates with the bishops in all matters concerning the correct and fruitful exercise of the pastoral office entrusted to them,” according to the constitution, “Praedicate Evangelium.”

The prefect of the dicastery can organize an apostolic visitation of a diocese where a bishop appears to be struggling, and it is involved in the process of investigating bishops suspected of mishandling or covering up cases of sexual abuse.

As head of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, Archbishop Iannone was deeply involved with the revision of the Code of Canon Law’s “Book VI: Penal Sanctions in the Church,” one of seven books that make up the code for the Latin rite of the Catholic Church; with updated descriptions of the crimes of sexual abuse, including child pornography, and the required actions of a bishop or superior of a religious order in handling allegations, it was promulgated by Pope Francis in 2021.

And, following up on that, the archbishop led the preparation of the 2023 update of “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You are the light of the world”), which set out the procedures for bishops, religious superiors and the heads of international Catholic movements to investigate allegations of sexual abuse or the cover up of abuse.

In February, the Dicastery for Legislative Texts — defending the right to self-defense and to a presumption of innocence — published on its website a letter by the archbishop and the dicastery’s secretary strongly cautioning dioceses and religious orders against publishing the names of church personnel who have been accused of abuse but have not been found guilty in civil or canonical procedures.

The new prefect was born in Naples Dec. 13, 1957, and entered the Carmelites in 1976 after finishing high school. He completed his bachelor’s in theology at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Southern Italy and then earned a doctorate in both civil and canon law from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

He made his first solemn profession as a Carmelite in 1980 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1982.

Within the Carmelite order, he served as treasurer and as counselor. From 1989 to 1995, he was president of the order’s commission for the revision of its constitutions. He also held positions in the Archdiocese of Naples, including on the tribunal and as a regional episcopal vicar.

St. John Paul II named him an auxiliary bishop of Naples in 2001, and Pope Benedict XIV named him bishop of Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo in 2009. Three years later, Pope Benedict named him an archbishop and vice regent of the Diocese of Rome.

Pope Francis named him adjunct secretary of the office for legislative texts in 2017 and president a year later.

He currently serves as a member of the appeals board for abuse cases at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, a member of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and as a member of the Apostolic Signatura, the Holy See’s highest court.

While naming Archbishop Iannone head of the dicastery, Pope Leo also reappointed for five-year terms Archbishop Ilson de Jesus Montanari as dicastery secretary and Msgr. Ivan Kovac as undersecretary of the dicastery.