Author: Eric Deabill

(OSV News) – In anticipation of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. bishops will consecrate the country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus June 11 during their spring plenary assembly in Orlando, Florida.

The act of consecration is a significant matter. But what does it really mean to consecrate a place – such as an entire country?

For Timothy O’Malley, explaining what a consecration is includes making clear what it is not.

“It is not some sort of magic,” said O’Malley, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, where he is also associate director for research at its McGrath Institute for Church Life. “A consecration is actually to make something sacred, quite literally, to bring it to God. And typically there are periods of preparation for various consecrations, to order something toward God.”

R. Jared Staudt, a Catholic educator, also said consecration “orders something to God, to help it to realize its purpose.”

“The purpose of everything is to give God glory. We see that Adam is actually given a priestly mission in the garden (of Eden), when he is meant to cultivate and protect. And those are words that were later drawn into the Israelite priesthood: ‘abad’ and ‘shamar,” he said, using Hebrew words that mean “to serve, and protect and defend.”

“And so Adam was placed inside the garden, to order it to God as his temple,” explained Staudt, who oversees content at Exodus 90, a Catholic app that guides men in living out their faith.

“One of the main tasks of humanity is to ensure that everything within creation reaches its ultimate purpose, which is to give glory to God,” he said. “So, when you order something, you are directing it to that ultimate end.”

And this, the theologians said, is what the bishops will be doing once they consecrate the United States.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines “consecration” as “the dedication of a thing or person to divine service by a prayer or blessing.”

“Consecration is something that is first and foremost a sacred act,” said Scott Hahn, a biblical scholar at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. “Secondly, it relates our whole life to our Lord and to the communion of saints. And so it also is something that is rooted and grounded in the notion of covenant. And this is what I think is often overlooked, but highly significant.”

“It seems to me that we’ve got to recover the notion of covenant in terms of the sacred kinship bonds that unite us to God, not just as our creator, but as our father,” he added, saying the concept of “covenant” is significantly different from making a “social contract.”

Hahn pointed to 2 Chronicles 15 for biblical references on consecrating a location, in which the king of Judah turned his land back to God, removing idols and pagan practices.

“King Asa consecrates all of the people of God. … With trumpets, with music and with proclamation, they swear an oath,” he said. “I mean, who would associate a juridical act of oathswearing with consecration, with celebration?”

Catholics may be most familiar with consecration in the Mass, when a priest consecrates the Eucharist through the Holy Spirit by reciting a prayer formula that transubstantiates bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. But the theologians distinguished between consecrating the Eucharist and consecrating a location, in which there is not a specifically worded prayer.

A consecration is distinct from a dedication or a blessing, the theologians emphasized.

Staudt said dedication designates something for a divine purpose, while a blessing asks “God to pour out his favor upon someone or something.” Consecration, he and the other theologians said, is something given to God. It is also more formal than the other two, according to O’Malley. Hahn said all three are “actions of the covenant.”

They also said consecration of a people matters — whether for believers, nonbelievers or those not fully aware of its significance.

“In the midst of a really perilous political situation operative right now, in the midst of war and violence and the terrors of AI, the Church thinks about existing in a particular country, existing in the United States. Her members now should really dedicate themselves anew to the merciful love of Christ,” said O’Malley.

“Any proper act that we perform, with regard to a relationship to God in Christ through his Sacred Heart, is going to have a ripple effect,” said Hahn. “It’s going to impact our own families, our parishes, our neighborhoods, our towns, our cities, our states, more than we can perceive.

“So we do what is right because it’s right,” he continued. “And then we leave in God’s hands the consequences of it, trusting that he’s going to probably bring about greater good than what we could possibly intend or realize.”

Staudt reminded the faithful that “the Church is not a sect” and that it acts for the good of everyone, no matter their beliefs.

“The Church exists to glorify God and to sanctify the world for him. So both the sacrifice of the Mass and other acts of prayer, such as these consecrations, are done on behalf of all, in a way that does benefit them and bless them, even if they’re unaware, unconcerned or even opposed to those acts,” he said.

MADRID (OSV News) – More than 1.2 million people filled the streets of Madrid as Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass and led a Eucharistic procession through the heart of the Spanish capital June 7 for the solemnity of Corpus Christi, the liturgical feast celebrating the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

“We are gathered around the Eucharist, the gift of Christ’s living presence among us. He who wished to offer us his life so that we might enter into communion with the Father and become his children, is here as the living Bread come down from heaven, to nourish us with the very life of God, with a love stronger than death,” Pope Leo said in his homily.

“Just as Christ gives himself as food in the Eucharistic celebration, the procession shows that he is not confined to the church, but comes out to meet us,” he added. “Jesus travels the streets, crosses the squares and visits our neighborhoods, dwelling in the settings of our daily lives.”

— Eucharistic grace to transform people’s lives —

The pope offered Mass in the Plaza de Cibeles, the city’s iconic neoclassical fountain square where several of Madrid’s grand avenues converge, before leading the Corpus Christi procession that wound nearly a mile and a half through streets adorned with elaborate floral carpets crafted by local artisans from more than 30,000 carnations.

Children who recently received the sacrament of First Communion scattered flower petals and religious sisters carried candles near the front of the long procession of priests and bishops, culminating with a golden canopy under which Pope Leo carried the large monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament. People in the crowd knelt down and tossed flowers as the Eucharist passed by.

In his homily, Pope Leo reflected on the power of Eucharistic grace to transform people’s lives.

“It is not merely a matter of bringing out the monstrance, but of allowing ourselves to be brought out of our selfishness and indifference, of a comfortable, private faith, so as to respond to his invitation to conversion, to change our perspective, and to welcome his presence which transforms us,” the pope said, telling Spaniards to live their faith courageously in the public square.

The task of Spain today and in the future, the pope said, is to “ensure that the religiosity which has shaped and defined this country for centuries is not a museum of the past to be visited, but a school of faith from which to draw even today.”

In a country struggling with extreme political polarization and unhealed wounds of the Civil War, the pope said the living faith can transform society as “no one can kneel before the Lord” and at the same time “despise their brother.”

Catholic roots of Spain can be “a school” that “teaches us of the gratuitousness of love that becomes a gift, so that it may flow among us and break the chains of all selfishness,” and one “from which we learn that God is a real presence and that we too are called to be present in the realities and challenges of society, not shying away, but personally committing ourselves to the building of the common good.”

— Silent fidelity to the Eucharist —

As Pope Leo passed by in the procession, he may have recognized one of the faces in the crowd.

Twenty-eight-year-old Erci Torres from Peru, was confirmed by Pope Leo when he served as her bishop at the Santa Rosa de Lima parish in Chiclayo. Today she lives in Madrid and was thrilled to see the pope again.

“It was a very unforgettable experience,” Torres told OSV News. “And to imagine that he is now the pope is incredible.”

During the Mass, Pope Leo invoked St. Manuel González García, an early 20th-century Spanish bishop who passionately urged people to recognize the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Today the saint is known as “the bishop of the abandoned tabernacle” because on his tomb in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of Palencia Cathedral, it is written, “I ask to be buried next to a tabernacle, so that my bones after my death, like my tongue and my pen in life, may always be repeating to those who pass by: ‘Jesus is here! Jesus is here! Do not leave him abandoned!'”

Pope Leo said, “His life reminds us that the Eucharist should be honored not only during great celebrations or on special occasions, but also through the silent fidelity of those who accompany the Lord with a humble and quiet friendship that is nourished day by day.”

The pope also drew on the poetry of St. John of the Cross, who, while imprisoned in Toledo around the time of Corpus Christi in 1578, found the Lord in the darkness of his cell, which the pope described as “a presence from which emanates a light that never fades.”

— Special moment for Madrileños —

Crowds lined the major avenues leading to the plaza for hours before the Mass began, with 2,300 Eucharistic ministers needed to distribute communion to the assembled faithful. About 400 musicians provided music for the liturgy, including an orchestral ensemble.

 

Among the crowd was the Adam family, eight siblings who waited together for hours to take part in the papal Mass. Seventeen-year-old Patricia Adam is the second oldest of the 8 siblings. Her older sister played violin in the orchestra for the papal Mass.

“For me, my Catholic faith is living a relationship with God and with Jesus in intimacy,” Adam said. “Being here with my family means a lot because it is not just a relationship one to one, but all together with God.”

Nearby 23-year-old Lucia waited with her four siblings and 17 cousins as they attended the Mass together.

“Faith has always been so important to me,” she said. “I have an aunt who is a nun. She is from the Missionaries of Charity. She’s my best example of faith.”

— Corpus Christi: a beloved public expression of faith —

The elaborate floral carpets lining the Calle de Alcalá were created by artisans from the Galician town of Ponteareas, working alongside more than 160 volunteers. The 16 large carpets depicting Eucharistic and Christian symbols lined the streets.

“The solemn processions held on this day have for centuries shaped the piety, art, music, architecture and life of the Spanish people,” Pope Leo said. “Even today, they still express and manifest the spiritual sentiments of this country through the beauty and elegance of the floral carpets, the altars erected in the streets, the carefully crafted monstrances and stands, the hymns and the liturgical vestments.”

For Spaniards, Corpus Christi remains one of the country’s most beloved public expressions of faith and an example of how deeply rooted popular piety remains in Spanish culture.

“This is not an exhibition,” the pope said. “It is a profession of faith in the presence of the risen Lord, who is alive and continues to walk among us, who becomes bread to satiate our hunger for life, and visits the recesses of our hearts and history, even those shrouded in darkness.”

“May the Lord Jesus, present in the Eucharist, transform you into bread that is broken, given, and offered, so that a life of fullness may spring forth for you, for your families, and for your country.”

(OSV News) – As the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks captivates basketball fans across the country, one of the most unlikely storylines belongs not to a player or coach, but to a group of Catholic sisters whose devotion extends far beyond the basketball court.

The Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco in San Antonio have become national celebrities during the Spurs’ playoff run, earning the nickname “Spurs Nuns” as videos of their courtside appearances, prayers and enthusiastic support for the team spread across social media.

Yet, Sister Bernadette Mota, director of the Department of Mission Advancement for the Salesian Sisters’ Western province, is quick to put the attention into perspective.

“The goal is not to be ‘Spurs Nuns,'” she told OSV News. “That’s fun and exciting and special right now, but the ultimate mission is to be consecrated women religious dedicated to helping the young and the poor.”

That mission has guided the sisters for generations.

Known formally as the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the Salesian Sisters follow the spirituality of St. John Bosco and dedicate themselves to educating young people, serving the poor and accompanying women at risk. Their ministries on San Antonio’s West Side focus on some of the city’s most vulnerable residents through schools, youth programs and evangelization efforts.

The sisters’ connection to the Spurs began in the late 1990s as a way to relate to the students they served. What started as a shared interest with local children gradually developed into a tradition that has endured for nearly three decades.

“This is still like rooting for the kids in our schools, only these are much bigger kids,” Sister Bernadette said with a chuckle.

That affection for the team has not gone unnoticed by the players.

During the Western Conference championship series, videos of the sisters praying with Spurs players attracted widespread attention. One included a spirited interaction with Spurs center Luke Kornet, a practicing Catholic who has spoken openly about the importance of his faith.

Another involved a friendly encounter with Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama. As players emerged from the locker room, Wembanyama stopped to greet each sister individually.

“We did not talk to Victor,” Sister Bernadette said, “but he embraced each of our hands with his hands, an expression of gratitude for the prayers.”

The relationship between the sisters and the franchise stretches back much further. One elderly sister regularly exchanged letters with Gregg Popovich, former longtime Spurs coach. Popovich not only responded but eventually visited the convent with his late wife, creating a friendship that remained meaningful to the community.

More recently, the Spurs provided tickets that allowed sisters and employees from their ministries to attend games.

“We do not buy tickets to the games, but we are grateful for benefactors who donate them to us,” Sister Bernadette said. “The watch parties that we’ve had with our school kids and families have also been sponsored by benefactors.”

Going into Game 2 in San Antonio June 5, the Knicks were leading 1-0. Games 3 and 4 will be June 8 and June 10 at Madison Square Garden in New York. If a fifth game is needed, it will be June 13 in San Antonio.

At the episcopal level, the championship series has sparked a friendly wager between Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio and Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks of New York — with regional food specialties from both cities on the line.

The two prelates, friends since their days serving together in the Archdiocese of Chicago, made the bet June 3, just hours before the Game 1 tipoff, according to The Good Newsroom, the online news outlet of the Archdiocese of New York.

If the Spurs win, Archbishop Hicks will send his Texas counterpart a box of bagels, cream cheese and Lox from H&H Bagels, an iconic New York bagel company. If the Knicks are victorious, Archbishop García-Siller will send Texas pecan coffee, cowboy cookies, barbecue sauce and other items from the San Antonio-based grocery chain H-E-B.

In a social media post announcing the wager, Archbishop Hicks noted that a trio of Knicks stars — Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart and team captain Jalen Brunson — are all alumni of Villanova University, the alma mater of Pope Leo XIV

For the Salesian Sisters, as national media attention to them has grown, they have welcomed the spotlight while remaining mindful of its purpose.

“We’ve experienced media presence before,” Sister Bernadette said. “But this time, there’s definitely a lot more hype going on.”

The attention has also provided opportunities to highlight the sisters’ ministries and the needs of the young people they serve.

For Sister Bernadette, the connection between faith and sports is natural.

“Faith and sports can go hand in hand,” she told OSV News. “Through the correct lens, there is so much we can learn from when done properly.”

Teamwork, perseverance, sacrifice and community are values that resonate both on the court and in the Gospel, she explained.

Yet while fans debate championships and bragging rights, the sisters remain focused on something larger. For the Salesian Sisters, basketball has simply become another way to build relationships, share joy and remind people of the mission that has always come first.

The excitement surrounding the “Spurs Nuns” may fade when the season ends. But their work of serving young people, educating students and accompanying families in need will continue long after the final buzzer sounds.

(OSV News) – As the U.S. Bishops prepare to consecrate the United States to Jesus’ Sacred Heart June 11 during their spring meeting in Orlando, Florida, here are six things to know about devotion to the Sacred Heart.

1. The devotion has ancient roots. When the Roman soldier struck the crucified Jesus with his sword, blood and water flowed from his side. That blood and water have long been understood to symbolize an outpouring of God’s grace. Over the centuries, saints and theologians produced writings reflecting on the Sacred Heart, but it remained a personal devotion.

2. The devotion spread due to the visions of a young French nun. Beginning in 1673, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque of the Visitation order at Paray-le-Monial, France, experienced a series of visions of Jesus over the span of 18 months. In those visions, Jesus displayed his Sacred Heart as a symbol of his love, and he told her to work to universalize devotion to his heart. These visions are the basis for the First Friday devotions and the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus we have today. The image of the Sacred Heart as a wounded heart afire, encircled by a crown of thorns and surmounted by a cross, also came from those revelations. St. Margaret Mary was canonized in 1920.

3. The devotion is rooted in prayer, liturgy and acts of reparation. St. Margaret Mary said Jesus told her that despite loving mankind so much that he gave his life for them, he was being treated with irreverence, coldness and ingratitude. He wanted the world to recognize the love he continually poured out for them symbolized by his Sacred Heart and for mankind to make amends for their ingratitude. Jesus urged St. Margaret Mary to begin a personal devotion to his divine heart by receiving holy Communion every first Friday and spending an hour in prayer the night before, both focused on seeking his pardon and making prayerful reparations for mankind’s desertion of his love.

4. The devotion includes 12 promises. Jesus shared with St. Margaret Mary 12 promises he pledged to those who developed and shared a devotion to his Sacred Heart. They are: I (Jesus) I will give them the graces necessary for their state of life; I will establish peace in their homes; I will comfort them in all their afflictions; I will be their strength in life and especially in death; I will bless their undertakings; sinners shall find in my heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy; tepid souls shall grow fervent; fervent souls shall quickly advance toward perfection; I will bless every place where an image of my heart is honored; I will give priests the gift of reaching even the most hardened hearts; those who promote this devotion will have their names written in my heart; those who receive Communion on nine consecutive First Fridays will receive the grace of final perseverance.

5. Jesuits helped the devotion gain official approval. When St. Margaret Mary first attempted to explain the visions, many around her were skeptical. It was St. Claude de la Colombiere, her Jesuit spiritual adviser, who recognized her holiness, fervor and sincerity. However, even when she was believed, as a cloistered nun there was little she could do to foster her visions outside of her order. The devotion was also promoted by the non-Jesuit priest St. John Eudes, a former Oratorian who founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary and Sisters of Charity of the Refuge. Universal approval eventually came from the Vatican in August 1856 during the reign of Pope Pius IX. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII, encouraged by Catholics around the world, consecrated the human race to the Sacred Heart. The Jesuit order officially decreed in 1883 that its members had a particular role in promoting Jesus’ Sacred Heart, and in 1915, it linked this work to the Apostleship of Prayer, now known as the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, which is entrusted to the order.

6. The annual feast of the Sacred Heart occurs in June. The solemnity of the Sacred Heart falls on the third Friday following the feast of Pentecost, this year June 12. In one vision, Jesus asked St. Margaret Mary to establish a Church feast day to honor his Sacred Heart. On that day, those faithful to Jesus would attend Mass, receive holy Communion, profess their love and offer reparations for the way he had been insulted by mankind. A solemnity is the highest ranking feast on the Church calendar. The Church also dedicates First Fridays and the month of June to the Sacred Heart.

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – As international health officials warn the Ebola outbreak in central Africa had a “big head start,” Catholic Relief Services, the overseas relief and development arm of the Catholic Church in the U.S., is among the groups seeking to stop the spread of the highly fatal disease.

The outbreak in Congo, stretching into neighboring Uganda, is the first Ebola outbreak since the Trump administration shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development, folding its remaining functions into the State Department, and withdrew from the World Health Organization last year.

According to the WHO, amid the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola — a variety of Ebola that has no medication or vaccine — they have confirmed 344 cases in Congo, including 60 deaths.

Rafaramalala Volanarisoa, CRS head of office in Congo, told OSV News in a June 3 interview that CRS “mobilized quickly” to help its local partners.

The group, she said, is raising funds for food and medical supplies as well as water.

“There is a huge need for water: water to clean, clean beds, clean wards, clean hands,” she said.

Critics of the Trump administration’s cuts to foreign aid have said the absence of USAID slowed detection of the virus and led to a more disjointed response among aid agencies on the ground. But during June 2 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sparred with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., over his argument that the U.S. is now less prepared to deal with disease outbreaks, saying, “I don’t agree with that assessment.”

While praising the efforts of entities on the ground, Volanarisoa said, “There are really some gaps” in the absence of USAID, particularly in disease surveillance data. But she said, despite a delayed start, the distribution of that data has started to improve.

But there are additional challenges to containing the Ebola outbreak, Volanarisoa said. They include cultural practices surrounding burial, as contact with victims’ remains must be limited to reduce transmission of the virus, the reduced capacity of treatment centers to provide routine care with Ebola patients in quarantine, as well as misinformation surrounding the virus and its risks.

An Ebola burial team in Congo’s eastern South Kivu province was attacked June 1, the country’s health ministry said June 4. The attack forced the workers to abandon a coffin, sparking concerns of further transmission.

“Misinformation – the fact that people do not believe that there is an outbreak, they don’t believe that this is deadly,” Volanarisoa said, is among their biggest challenges.

“There’s a lot of mistrust of response actors,” she said. “They believe that it’s a fabricated disease for response actors to get money, and that this results from COVID; there are lots of monies that poured in the region. There are lots of new cars and people moving around, and they did not really see, they did not really have trust in those response actors.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a June 3 press conference also stressed that “building trust” is “critical” to bringing the outbreak under control.

“Community mistrust is a serious barrier,” Ghebreyesus said. “Some community leaders told me that they believe Ebola is not real.”

CRS has been in communication with the bishops and priests of local dioceses to ask them “to speak up and (communicate) in church that yes, Ebola is real,” Volanarisoa said.

Meanwhile, plans for Americans exposed to Ebola to be quarantined in Kenya faced increasing backlash in that country.

In an open letter to Congress on June 1, a group of U.S. healthcare officials raised alarm about the plan by U.S. officials to transfer “American citizens with Ebola exposures requiring quarantine, isolation, or medical care” to a facility in Kenya or countries in the European Union rather than “to specialized treatment centers in the United States.”

“This policy raises profound clinical, ethical, operational, and legal concerns,” the letter said, noting that the U.S. has already “demonstrated that safe repatriation is both feasible and effective.” It warned the new policy risked undermining the Ebola response, stating, “If responders believe they may be denied access to optimal medical care should they become ill, many will understandably reconsider whether they can safely serve.”

The U.S. Embassy in Kenya said in a June 2 statement that as “the health security situation evolves, we are working in tandem with Kenya and international partners to enhance protocols for detection and spread of this deadly disease.”

“The bio-isolation facility in Laikipia is part of a holistic response to prevent spread of the disease and lessen health risks for the region as a whole; it does not pose risk to nearby communities,” the statement said.

In a June 3 Ebola Response Update issued by the State Department, a spokesperson said the department “in close coordination with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and in partnership with the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, is continuing to mount a rapid and comprehensive response to the Ebola outbreak.”

“The Department’s highest priority remains protecting the health of the American people and preventing this Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores,” the memo said.

SCRANTON – As Catholics throughout the world celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ – commonly known as Corpus Christi Sunday – the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, invites the faithful of the Diocese of Scranton to join him for a Pontifical Mass at 12:15 p.m. on Sunday, June 7, at the Cathedral of Saint Peter, 315 Wyoming Avenue, Scranton.

Corpus Christi is one of the Church’s most beloved feasts, inviting Catholics to reflect with gratitude and wonder upon the gift of the Holy Eucharist – the true presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ reminds us that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith, nourishing us to become Christ’s presence in the world and strengthening us for lives of discipleship and service.

This year’s celebration comes as the fruits of the National Eucharistic Revival continue to be felt across our country.

Between 2022 and 2025, Catholics throughout the United States were invited to renew their faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist through prayer, formation, Eucharistic adoration, pilgrimages, and public witness. That spirit of renewal remains visible today as the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage journeys along the East Coast, carrying the Blessed Sacrament from St. Augustine, Florida, to Philadelphia, where it will culminate during celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the United States.

The current pilgrimage that is underway serves as a powerful reminder that Christ continues to walk with His people and calls us to place Him at the center of our lives and our nation.

For those unable to attend Sunday’s Mass with Bishop Bambera in person, CTV: Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton will provide a live broadcast. The Mass will also be livestream on the Diocese of Scranton website and YouTube channel, with links to the Mass made available on all Diocesan social media platforms.

(Vatican News) – Pope Leo XIV has encouraged the faithful to keep alive the public witness of faith made visible in Eucharistic processions, recalling that this week the Church celebrates the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi.

“In the Eucharist, we contemplate Jesus, the bread broken and given for each of us,” Pope Leo said in his greeting to Italian-speaking pilgrims at the end of his Wednesday general audience on June 3.

“Processions with the Blessed Sacrament, which take place in the streets of many towns, are an expression of popular Eucharistic devotion; in this regard, I encourage you to keep alive this beautiful public manifestation of faith,” Pope Leo said.

In the Church’s liturgical calendar, the feast of Corpus Christi falls on the Thursday following the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. However, in most U.S. dioceses, the celebration of the solemnity is transferred to the following Sunday so that more people can participate. This year the solemnity will be celebrated June 7.

In his greetings to pilgrims, the pope also offered special words of closeness to priests and religious serving in the Middle East.

“I would like to address a special word to the priests and religious of the Middle East: I accompany your ministry and the hopes of your respective countries with my prayers and my blessing,” he said.

The Holy Father also greeted the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, members of the Montfortian Family and the Sisters of Our Lady of the Cenacle, encouraging them “to be a sign of hope for all those who thirst for God, for his truth, and for his peace.”

(OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV appointed Maria Montserrat “Montse” Alvarado, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication on June 2.

Alvarado, a Mexican-American Catholic who grew up in Miami, will succeed Paolo Ruffini, whom Pope Francis appointed in 2018 as the first lay prefect of a dicastery. She will assume the post Nov. 1.

She will be the first laywoman who is not a religious sister to lead a dicastery, and, at age 39, will be by far the youngest prefect in the Roman Curia.

The first woman to head a Vatican dicastery was an Italian Consolata Missionary, Sister Simona Brambilla, who was 59 when Pope Francis appointed her in January 2025 as prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Pope Leo XIV confirmed his predecessor’s appointment of another high ranking woman at the Vatican, Sister Raffaella Petrini, a Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist, as president of the office governing Vatican City State in May 2025. He named Sister Nina Benedikta Krapic, a Sister of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, as the deputy director of the Holy See Press Office in February.

Currently based in Washington, Alvarado holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Florida International University and a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University. She began working in communications for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington-based nonprofit law firm that defends religious freedom cases, in 2009, rising to vice president and executive director in 2017.

In 2021, she began a professional transition to Catholic media, becoming the host of the weekly news show “EWTN News In Depth” while still working for the Becket Fund. She was named president and COO of EWTN News in 2023.

Pope Francis established the Vatican Dicastery for Communication in 2015 as part of his reform of the Roman Curia. The dicastery oversees the Holy See’s communications systems, including Vatican News, Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican Media, the Holy See Press Office, the Vatican publishing house, the Vatican Printing Press and the Filmoteca Vaticana.

“The Dicastery for Communication has embedded in its very DNA the duty to remain constantly attuned to the rapidly changing world of communication,” Ruffini said in a statement on the day of Alvarado’s appointment.

“I have now entered the final lap of the race, before the moment when — in the long journey that is our working life — having reached the age of 70, the age set for retirement, I will pass the baton to Montserrat Alvarado as the next prefect,” he said. “Over the last couple of years, we have come to know each other. And in the coming months, we will work closely together, in the spirit of communion that unites us in the Church.”

In a statement about Alvarado’s appointment, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, congratulated her on behalf of the conference.

“We are grateful for her work as a Catholic journalist, faithfully covering the work of the bishops, and also for her advocacy and dedication to upholding religious freedom and human dignity at the Becket Fund,” the archbishop said. “I assure her of our prayers as she continues to serve the universal Church with her unique talents.”

Alvarado was received in a private audience with Pope Leo XIV together with Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia on Sept. 6, 2025, to discuss the pope’s digital outreach to American Catholic youth at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis.

“I was recently told by a dear friend to thank God for the doors that open that we never knock on,” Alvarado said in a statement after her appointment. “While this appointment was unexpected, I receive it with a sincere desire to serve the Holy Father as he begins his pontificate.”

“At the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV asked journalists and communicators to never separate the search for truth from the love with which we must humbly seek it, and to preserve human faces and voices which are God’s indelible mark on our humanity in each of us. It is with this understanding of our vocation as communicators that I receive this appointment with deep gratitude, humility, and trust in the Lord,” Alvarado said.

VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – With the FIFA World Cup opening this month, Pope Leo XIV has dedicated his June prayer intention to the power of sport to build bridges between cultures and nations, releasing a video prayer calling on athletes, coaches and fans alike to embrace the field as a space of encounter rather than division.

The Vatican released the monthly “Pray with the Pope” video on June 2 in which the pope prayed that “sport may always be a school of fraternity, not of empty rivalry, a space of encounter, not exclusion, a path of peace, not violence.”

The pope’s official prayer intention for the month reads, “For the values of sport: Let us pray that sport may be an instrument of peace, encounter and dialogue between cultures and peoples, and may promote values such as respect, solidarity, and personal growth.”

The American pope’s prayer intention comes as his home country will begin co-hosting the World Cup on June 11 alongside Mexico and Canada. A record 48 national teams will compete across 104 matches in the three host nations through July 19.

“Lord of life, we thank you for the gift of sport, for those who glorify God through the exercise of their bodies, for the friendships born on the field and the joy of playing as a team,” Pope Leo said in the video, recorded inside the Church of San Pellegrino in Vatican City.

“May those who play, train or cheer discover in sport a universal language that brings cultures together, unites peoples, and sows respect, solidarity and personal growth,” he added.

From the first days of his pontificate, Pope Leo has been known for his love of sport. He is an avid tennis player and a fan of Major League Baseball’s Chicago White Sox.

In his first interview as pope, he was asked who he would cheer for if the United States and Peru (where he served as a missionary for years and is also a citizen) were to face each other in the World Cup. He said he would cheer for Peru. As it happens, neither Peru nor Italy qualified for the 2026 tournament, sparing him any potential conflict of allegiances.

In April, the pope welcomed Italian Olympic and Paralympic athletes who competed in the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games to the Vatican. In May, the pope received the players and management of Inter Milan, winners of this season’s Italian Serie A title, for a Vatican audience.

In the prayer video, Pope Leo drew a connection between athletic life and the Christian journey.

“Lord Jesus, may every sport become a parable of life lived with you, working with joy and effort, living with humility in defeat and with gratitude in the victory you offer in your Resurrection,” he prayed.

“May your Spirit never be lacking in us, making us one team, united with you to build communion and fraternity in history.”

(OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV’s acknowledgment of the Church’s role in slavery is “only proper and just,” said Bishop Roy E. Campbell Jr., who is president of the National Black Catholic Congress.

And the task ahead is to take concrete action to heal slavery’s legacy, added the prelate, who retired recently as an auxiliary bishop of Washington.

The official apology — endorsed as well by the Knights of Peter Claver, one of one of the Catholic Church’s largest historically Black Catholic lay fraternal organizations — was included in “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” Pope Leo’s first encyclical.

Released May 25, the text invoked the wisdom of the Church’s social teaching — which articulates the means of building a just society and living out holiness in modern life — as a framework for shaping AI amid rapid technological advances, a fractured global order and accelerating threats to human dignity.

Warning against AI’s potential to cause “new forms of slavery” — especially by facilitating human trafficking and exploiting laborers, including children, in mining resource minerals for the technology — Pope Leo lamented “the delay with which both society and the Church came to denounce the scourge of slavery.”

The transatlantic slave trade saw some 12 million to 20 million Africans enslaved in various Western nations, including the U.S., over a period of four centuries.

The Church’s hesitation to address slavery spanned some 18 centuries, Pope Leo noted, describing such inaction as “a wound in Christian memory, one from which we cannot consider ourselves detached.”

The pope “is taking the initiative to admit that the Church was complicit by either allowing (slavery) or looking the other way, and we ask forgiveness for that,” said Bishop Campbell, who continues to serve as pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Largo, Maryland.

Once “you recognize the wrong, and you’re sorry for the wrong,” said Bishop Campbell, the question becomes, “now, what do we do to correct it?”

He pointed to recent efforts in the Archdiocese of Washington to “honor those who were formerly enslaved and buried in unmarked graves.”

“The starting point with that (project) is one of our churches, Sacred Heart in Bowie, Maryland,” he explained.

The church and its cemetery were formerly the site of White Marsh Plantation, bequeathed to the Jesuits in 1729 by James Carroll, cousin to Archbishop John Carroll, the inaugural bishop of Baltimore.

As one of several Jesuit plantations in the state of Maryland, White Marsh had, at times, some 100 enslaved persons.

The plantation had been “the motherhouse for the Jesuits in that area” of what is now Prince George’s County in Maryland, said Bishop Campbell.

Through the use of ground-penetrating radar, he said, “we’ve identified over a thousand sites consistent with” unmarked graves.

The Jesuits have acknowledged their participation in slavery, and in 2017 the order issued a public apology addressed in particular to some 100 descendants of 272 enslaved persons, including children, the order had sold in 1838 to keep Georgetown University financially solvent.

“They said, ‘It was wrong, and this is what we’re trying to do to correct it for the descendants,'” said Bishop Campbell, who blessed the graveyard during a 2025 pilgrimage of remembrance.

“Obviously the only thing we can do is honor the memory of those who were enslaved,” he said.

But Pope Leo’s apology enables the Church “on a universal scale” to “help the descendants reach peace, and know that there’s justice,” said the bishop.

The faithful can participate in that by doing “what Our Lord calls us to do — to love, to forgive and to work to help your neighbor,” Bishop Campbell said.

That summons reaches all people of goodwill, he added.

While surveying the graveyard a few years ago, “a gentleman pulled up in his truck and said, ‘Hey, I heard y’all were clearing ground and you found unmarked graves. Me and my sons want to be part of how we can help clear the ground and identify these graves,'” Bishop Campbell recalled. “He wasn’t even Catholic; he just knew that this was a way to identify and honor those who have been treated so wrongly in their lives.”

Catholics, whether they are “Black, white or any other shade of skin color,” can work to mend the wrongs of slavery “by the way we treat those among us now,” while striving “to honor the culture, the lives of those who have gone before us,” he said.

He lamented that “unfortunately in our country, it seems like a lot of times, how you’re treated depends on how you look, what language you speak, what culture you practice.”

“We’re a nation of immigrants,” said Bishop Campbell, adding that the mission is to now “treat others the way we want to be treated … because quite honestly, we’re all one in Christ.”