Catholic News
- Pope Leo, on All Saints' Day, proclaims Newman doctor of the Church, co-patron of education (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Square on November 1 and proclaimed St. John Henry Newman (1801-1890) a doctor of the Church and co-patron, along with St. Thomas Aquinas, of the Church’s educational mission (booklet, video). - Think of our departed loved ones as enfolded in Christ's light, Pope preaches at All Souls' Day Mass (CWN)
On All Souls’ Day, Pope Leo celebrated an afternoon Mass at the Cemetery of Verano in Rome (video). - Pope laments massacre in Sudan, election violence in Tanzania (CWN)
At the conclusion of his Sunday Angelus address on November 2, Pope Leo XIV lamented the massacre in Al-Fashir, Sudan, perpetrated by rebel forces in the Sudanese Civil War. - Leading African cardinal denounces world's 'culpable silence' about DR Congo conflicts (CWN)
At a recent interreligious peace conference in Rome, the president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) denounced the world’s “culpable silence” about conflicts in his nation, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. - Corruption crisis in Philippines sparks largest Church-backed protests in years (CNA)
In recent months, the Philippine bishops have repeatedly spoken out against corruption and declared a national day of prayer and public repentance. “Many initiatives have been undertaken to address corruption among political leaders, including protests, prayer rallies, forums, education, and awareness-raising mobilizations,” CNA notes. - Presidents of Gabon, Fiji meet with Pontiff; reconciliation, climate action discussed (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV received Presidents Brice Oligui Nguema of Gabon and Naiqama Lalabalavu of Fiji in separate audiences on October 30. - Vatican official transferred to Chilean diocese (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV appointed Archbishop Andrés Gabriel Ferrada Moreira, secretary of the Dicastery for the Clergy since 2021, as bishop of the Diocese of San Bartolomé de Chillán, Chile, which has 360,000 Catholics. The Pontiff permitted the prelate to retain the personal title of archbishop. In 2021, Pope Francis was the principal consecrator and principal celebrant at the archbishop’s episcopal ordination Mass. - USCCB committee chairman rues President Trump's prioritization of Afrikaners in refugee admissions (USCCB)
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Migration, criticized President Donald Trump’s executive order granting Afrikaners from South Africa priority treatment in refugee admissions. “We cannot turn a blind eye to the disparate treatment of refugees currently taking place,” the prelate said. “As exemptions are considered” to this year’s refugee ceiling of 7,500, “it is essential that they be applied consistently and without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, or national origin, in accordance with longstanding domestic and international norms.” Bishop Seitz added: Resettlement tainted by the perception of unjust discrimination is contrary to Catholic teaching and quintessential American values, grounded in our Constitution and refugee laws, including the equality of every person from the moment of their creation by God. - Abbot appointed for troubled Swiss abbey (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Father Alexandre Ineichen, CRA, the deputy prior of the Territorial Abbey of Saint-Maurice, Switzerland, as the ordinary abbot. In recent years, the abbey—akin to a tiny diocese, with five parishes entrusted to its care—has faced serious abuse allegations. In 2024, an independent commission found “at least 67 cases of sexualized violence, mostly against minors, perpetrated by at least 30 religious” since 1960; the Swiss government, citing the allegations, took control of the abbey’s school. In addition, Abbot Jean César Scarcella, who led the abbey from 2015 to July 2025, was accused of sexually harassing a teenager. His interim successor, Father Roland Jacquenoud, was then accused of having sexually abused an adult novice. - Theme announced for World Mission Day 2026 (Vatican Press Office)
The Dicastery for Evangelization has announced the theme for the next World Mission Sunday (October 18, 2026): “One in Christ, united in mission.” The theme, the dicastery stated in a press release, “recalls the motto chosen by the Holy Father for his Pontificate, ‘In Illo uno unum,’” as well as “the unity of believers in faith, based on the unity with Christ with the Father, and the consequent common mission of evangelization.” - November papal prayer intention: for the prevention of suicide (Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network)
The November papal prayer intention, disseminated by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (formerly known as the Apostleship of Prayer), is “let us pray that those who are struggling with suicidal thoughts might find the support, care and love they need in their community, and be open to the beauty of life.” Papal prayer intentions are announced a year in advance and are customarily retained by the new Pontiff following his predecessor’s death. - Pope Leo 'not in a hurry' to change Church discipline in the Amazon, bishop says (Vatican News (Portuguese))
Following an hour-long papal audience with the leaders of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon, a Brazilian bishop who was present said that Pope Leo is “not in a hurry” to change Church discipline regarding ministry there—a likely reference to the priestly ordination of married men. Auxiliary Bishop Zenildo Lima of Manaus, Brazil, spoke of “the Pope’s openness in commenting on the needs and ministerial steps for the Church in the Amazon. With great serenity, the Pope stated that he is not in a hurry with the processes, but prefers more solid, well-defined paths.” The bishop said that the Pope urged the leaders of the ecclesial conference “not to be in a hurry to try to structure things,” since “certain situations manifest themselves much more as charisms of the Holy Spirit.” - Pope, at interreligious gathering, highlights importance of prayer for peace (Dicastery for Communication)
Pope Leo XIV thanked participants in an annual interreligious peace conference for “coming here to pray for peace and for showing the world just how important prayer is.” “Gathered here today, we express not only our firm desire for peace, but also our conviction that prayer is a powerful force for reconciliation,” Pope Leo said at the conference. “Those who practice religion without prayer run the risk of misusing it, even to the point of killing.” The Community of Sant’Egidio has organized the conference each year since Pope St. John Paul II’s world day of prayer in Assisi in 1986. The theme of this year’s conference, the 39th, was “Daring Peace.” - EU's 'migration czar' meets with Pope, speaks of need to combat illegal immigration (@magnusbrunner)
Magnus Brunner, the European Commission’s Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration (or “migration czar”) met with Pope Leo XIV. “I was grateful for the opportunity to discuss the well-being of Christians in Europe and around the world,” said Brunner. “We also touched upon Europe’s approach to migration, firmly grounded in its values. Brunner also thanked the Pope for his “guidance and enduring commitment to peace and dialogue.” In an interview with Vatican News, Brunner distinguished legal immigration, “which we need and support,” from illegal immigration, which he linked to smuggling and human trafficking. Criticizing the EU’s oversight of migration in the 2010s as lackadaisical, Brunner said that “we must restore to the people of Europe the feeling that we are once again in control of what happens in Europe.” - Belarus: jailed priest reportedly pressed to implicate papal nuncio (Forum 18)
A Catholic priest who is imprisoned in Belarus was offered his freedom if he agreed to plant incriminating evidence on the apostolic nuncio during a prison visit, according to a report received by the Forum 18 news service. Another prisoner, recently released from the jail in Minsk, says that secret-police officers told Father Henryk Okolotovich that he could win his freedom and return to his congregation is he asked the nuncio to visit him, and planted a flash drive on the nuncio. The priest refused, his fellow inmate said. Father Okolotovich was convicted in December of treason, after a closed trial. He was charged with sending intelligence information about military aircraft to foreign powers—a charge that the stoutly denies. - Morocco cardinal: 'We must abandon the false paradigm of true religion, false religion' (Vatican News (Italian))
In a reflection for the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the archbishop of Rabat, Morocco, said that “we must abandon the false paradigm of ‘true religion, false religion.’” “Religions, for their part, have the responsibility to offer paths of meaning and truth, not of domination,” said Spanish-born Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero, SDB. “No religion can appropriate the truth, as if it were its sole owner. No one possesses the truth; if anything, it is the truth that possesses us all, and in every religion there are glimmers of truth.” The prelate also called for “conditions that allow everyone to live in religious freedom and to find answers to the questions that arise in religions.” (The US State Department has documented restrictions on religious freedom in Morocco, including prison terms for the crime of “undermining the Islamic religion.”) - Vatican diplomat rues withdrawals from land mine treaty (Holy See Mission)
Addressing a UN discussion on conventional weapons, a Vatican diplomat rued the decision of several nations to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty against land mines. “These weapons inflict indiscriminate and enduring harm on individuals, communities and the environment, leaving a deadly legacy long after conflicts have ended,” said Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. “The fact that they can be inadvertently activated by anyone, especially innocent civilians, makes them incompatible with the principles of humanity and international law.” Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland have announced their decisions to withdraw from the 1999 treaty; Russia, like the US, China, and India, never signed the treaty. Archbishop Caccia also criticized rising military expenditures and supported a draft treaty that would prohibit lethal autonomous weapon systems (“killer robots”). - Abuse victims approve New Orleans settlement (Guardian)
Victims of sexual abuse have approved a proposed $230-million bankruptcy settlement by the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The archdiocese reported that over 99% of the creditors voted in favor of the proposal, including virtually all of the abuse victims. A group of bond investors voted against the deal; they have sued the archdiocese of securities fraud. The proposed settlement now goes before a federal bankruptcy court for approval, with a hearing scheduled for November 12. - Major ecumenical gathering concludes with 'Call to All Christians' (World Council of Churches)
A major ecumenical gathering concluded by issuing a brief message, A Call to All Christians. After affirming their common faith in the Blessed Trinity and the importance of mission, participants in the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, which took place at a Coptic Orthodox monastery in Egypt, said that “in some contexts, mission has been entangled with histories of enslavement, colonialism, and power. Therefore, in our time, mission must be marked by repentance and a reorientation toward decolonization and justice, reconciliation and unity.” Christian unity “begins to be visible when we live together in ways that embody faith, hope, and love: not in isolation, but in solidarity with those who are marginalized by gender, race, poverty, disability, or ecological devastation,” the participants added. The first such faith and order conference took place in 1927 in Lausanne, Switzerland; the most recent, in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 1993. The conference was the centerpiece of the World Council of Churches’ commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. 350 Protestant and Orthodox communities are members of the WCC; Pope Leo XIV will commemorate the anniversary during his apostolic journey to Turkey next month. - Barcelona's Sagrada Familia is now the world's tallest church (AP)
The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the architectural masterpiece by Antonio Gaudi, became the world’s tallest church on October 31, when a crane lifted part of its central tower into place. The Sagrada Familia now rises to a height of 534 feet above ground level. It will be still taller—564 feet—when the central tower is completed next year. - More...