Bishop Paul Dempsey in TCD: Pope Leo’s Magnificent Humanity points beyond AI to an irreplaceable vision of each of us

One time Albert Einstein was asked, who was the smartest person he knew?  To everyone’s surprise he answered, his chauffeur.

Einstein explained that one time he was on his way to a conference exhausted and not feeling his best, his chauffeur, who heard his lecture countless times offered to deliver it for him. So they switched clothes and roles, they were somewhat similar in looks and since few had seen his face back then, no one noticed. The chauffeur stood up at the podium and delivered the speech flawlessly, while Einstein sat back in the front seat. When the chauffeur finished delivering the lecture, a journalist stood up and asked a really challenging question about the Theory of Relativity. The chauffeur paused for a second and then calmly replied, “Actually that question is quite simple, so much so that I’ll let my chauffeur here in the front row answer it.” Einstein stood up and gave a brilliant answer, the audience was stunned!

I like that story because it illustrates that intelligence and wisdom are two different things. The chauffeur in this case, one could say, possessed both. He could deliver the lecture, but more importantly, when the serious challenge came, he possessed the wisdom to deal with it. As I stand here, I am very conscious that this is a place in which knowledge, learning and imagination prosper; it is a place of academic freedom; of integrity in teaching and research and is built upon the idea that, “enquiry is the door to wisdom.” 

This idea of ‘enquiry’ and the ‘door to wisdom’ is especially worthy of reflection as this academic year commences. We are aware of the extraordinary changes that are happening in this moment, some argue we are living through an existential crisis. This could be partly due to the amount of information we are dealing with. Today, more than at any point in history, we have so much of the world inside our heads. I heard one commentator put it well, he said, “before we even get out of bed in the morning one can see people die in a war thousands of miles away, you can observe a political argument, you can hear someone tell you that everything you know about relationships is wrong. We have access to every opinion, lifestyle, belief, tragedy and possibility, and we can experience all this before 8.00am!” As a result, many are questioning their values, beliefs, and relationships. This leads to an overarching question, “What is the point of it all?”      

This is particularly relevant in the age of Artificial Intelligence. As we know the power of this source means that a book can be summarised in seconds, languages can be translated, computer codes written, it can generate an essay, an image, a piece of music, a legal argument, a scientific hypothesis. 

Paradoxically, the easier it becomes to obtain answers, the more important it becomes to know which questions are worth asking. It is in this context that Pope Leo XIV offers his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, promulgated just four months ago and devoted to protecting the human person in the age of artificial intelligence. 

The Pope compares our moment with the great industrial transformation addressed by Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum in 1891. Leo XIII confronted a world transformed by industrialisation, with new forms of work, emerging poverty and new questions about the relationship between capital, labour and human dignity. Leo XIV argues that Artificial Intelligence represents another transformation of comparable historical significance. 

Pope Leo understands the great advantages that Artificial Intelligence has contributed, but he sees a serious risk that we will cease to invest in things that make us human. There is the fear that a machine will handle things such as meaning, creativity, moral judgement and how we approach relationships. 

In presenting his encyclical at this time, the Pope is inviting the human community into a conversation about the challenges that AI poses. He speaks of the need to listen to scientists and engineers, political leaders, parents and teachers, and of the importance of people with different forms of expertise and experience learning to discern together. This is a profoundly university-like idea. The university, at its best, is a place where different kinds of knowledge meet. All of them need one another because no single discipline contains the whole truth. In our engagement with one another we grow, learn and are immersed into the great mystery and adventure that life is.  The university is not a museum of information. It is a place where inherited knowledge and experience encounter the new questions emerging today.

One of the most significant new questions we face is about the dignity of the human person in the age of Artificial Intelligence. Magnifica Humanitas insists that each human being is unique and irreplaceable, a free and intelligent subject. This has important implications for university life. A university, such as Trinity College, is a large complex web of relationships. There are students, lecturers, professors, chaplains, administrative staff and others. We must never forget that behind every academic function is a person. The task of a university is to create the conditions in which those persons can flourish in life.

To flourish one has to develop the whole person, it is not merely about feeling happy or achieving goals and avoiding suffering. It involves grappling with the big questions, pursuing meaningful relationships, making mistakes, and living an authentic life coherent with one’s values. All of this takes time. With Artificial Intelligence there may be the temptation to seek the short cut, the easy way, what has become known as ‘cognitive displacement,’ but genuine education is rarely like this. If a machine does the thinking for us, the immediate product may look impressive, but something has been lost. The purpose of a university is not merely to produce answers. It is to form people who can ask the right questions, recognise a false argument, understand another person’s point of view, tolerate ambiguity, revise their judgement and accept responsibility for what they do and say. These are human capacities that enable us to grow and reach our potential.

We know that those being educated here in Trinity will also face new challenges in the world of work. I served as a priest in the north Kildare area for over twenty years. It is the place where many of the very large tech companies are based. People have highly paid jobs that contribute to the local economy in so many positive ways. However, things are changing and there are questions now around whether these jobs will survive into the future. People are nervous. These questions are not only relevant for those employed in tech companies but also apply to the medical, legal and academic fields. There is no doubt that some tasks will disappear, others will be transformed, many professions will increasingly involve working alongside intelligent systems. But Magnifica Humanitas asks us not to reduce work to mere economic productivity.  Work has a human meaning. 

People work not only to produce things and earn money. They work to contribute, to serve, to create, to connect with others, to develop their abilities and to participate in society. If education is merely a preparation for employment, then perhaps the university’s task is a simply one and, that is, to give students the skills demanded by the labour market. But if education is about something greater, like helping the person to grow and flourish, then the task is much larger, it involves a more searching question of the university, namely, “What kind of human beings are we becoming?”

The title of Pope Leo’s encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas or Magnificent Humanity, ultimately points beyond artificial intelligence. It points towards a vision of the human person that cannot be replaced by a machine. The title reminds us that human beings possess a splendour which technology does not create and cannot confer. In a university like Trinity, whose community is ecumenical and contains many faiths and none, an important question emerges out of this, that is, “What do we mean when we say that a human being possesses a unique dignity?”

Christians explore this question through the prism of Christian Revelation. From this perspective, Pope Leo is clear that the value of the human person does not depend on what they achieve or produce, the fundamental dignity of each person is neither acquired nor earned, it does not need to be justified.

For Christians, the grandeur of the human person has its deepest foundation in the belief that humanity is created out of love in the image of God, and has an innate dignity. Others will approach this question through philosophy, ethics, literature or their own religious and humanist traditions. The university is precisely the place where these conversations can take place, not by pretending that we all agree, but by encountering and listening to one another so that we can learn and grow together in wisdom and love. This is needed now, more than ever!

One final theme in Magnifica Humanitas, that I think is especially appropriate for the beginning of the academic year, is that of the theme of hope – not optimism – but hope. Optimism says that everything will turn out well. Hope is more demanding. Seamus Heaney reminds us that, “Even if the hopes you set out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.” Pope Leo concludes by calling people to become, in his words, “artisans of hope.”

We are called to be people who help build the future rather than simply waiting for it. This, I believe, captures the vocation of the university. An artisan works patiently, pays attention to detail, knows that something worthwhile takes time. An artisan knows that the material entrusted to his or her hands is precious and must be treated with care. The material entrusted to a university is not simply information, it is human life! It is concerned with the future of society and that of the world.
 
In the Gospel from Matthew this evening, on this Feast of Saint Therese, Jesus sets a child before him and tells us that we must change and become “like little children.” It is a somewhat unusual invitation, but when one reflects upon it, a child lives a life inspired by wonder and inquiry, he or she approaches the world in an imaginative way. Perhaps Jesus is indicating that to be truly wise we should never lose our sense of wonder and imagination. We are invited to stand, in awe, before the beauty of creation and central to this is the unique dignity of every human person.  

This College has lived through enormous changes in intellectual culture and Irish society over the centuries. Its own history describes a long process of adaptation to a rapidly changing world. Each one of you is a significant part of the living story that is Trinity College, Dublin, today. As you begin this academic year, may you know that enquiry truly is the ‘door to wisdom.’ This gift of wisdom is needed now more than ever!

May you be inspired as you open your minds to the pressing questions of today, and your hearts to the wonder that is human life!

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Archbishop lays out his synodal vision for Brisbane Archdiocese

Archbishop Shane Mackinlay has this week unveiled his vision for a collaborative leadership model to guide the future of Brisbane Archdiocese.

Archbishop Mackinlay said the new structure would bring more lay leaders into oversight and help build a “collaborative, co-ordinated and synodal” local Church.

He said there was “so much goodwill, engagement and commitment” in the archdiocese, which he hoped to build upon with this leadership renewal.

The new model will also make a major contribution to ensuring the goals set by the 2024 Archdiocesan Synod are realised. 

Archbishop Mackinlay had three main objectives for the new structure:

• Encouraging a broader involvement in guiding the mission of the archdiocese;

• Fostering collaboration between archdiocesan parishes, agencies and other Catholic bodies in the archdiocese; and

• Creating a group to guide and monitor the implementing of the Synod24 decisions.

The headline change is the creation of a Council of Vicars, which will include the vicar general and seven new vicars who will each focus on a particular area of mission – health, social services, education, pastoral mission, clergy, religious and administration.

While the vicar general and vicar for clergy would continue to be priests and the vicar for religious a member of a religious institute, other portfolios would be open to laypeople.

A chief of staff role has also been created to co-ordinate the archbishop’s office and the work of these seven key roles.

Once the Council of Vicars is established, it will assist the archbishop to establish an ongoing Archdiocesan Pastoral Mission Council.

The inclusion of lay people into these key roles meant Archbishop Mackinlay could draw more widely from the gifts and expertise of the faithful in Brisbane Archdiocese.

He said the renewal would ultimately make the archdiocese “both more effective” and “more co-operative”.

The governance model reflects the global Synod for a Synodal Church called by Pope Francis, which focused on participation, communion and mission.

It also mirrors recent Vatican reforms where laypeople now lead several dicasteries in the Holy See.

Archbishop Mackinlay said all administrative structures in the Church must remain grounded in the Gospel and focused on pursuing mission.

“This is exactly what the Synod for a Synodal Church is calling us to do,” Archbishop Mackinlay said.

“This is a way of having a structure that gives a clear way for participation in mission by people from across the archdiocese – for all of the baptised, for the whole Church.”

Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention for the month of October

Pope Leo XIV’s prayer intention for the month of October is for the mental health ministry.

“Melancholy, bad character, confusion of senses — today, we understand that behind these old labels lies a deep, silent suffering not only of those affected by mental disorders but also of their loved ones and their communities,” Pope Leo said in a video released Oct. 1 on X.

He added: “We live in a world full of tensions, and even as solutions grow so does the number of people in crisis. This October, let us pray for the mental health ministry — an urgent and ever more needed service in our Church and in the world.”

In the full video shared on the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network website, Pope Leo recites an original prayer written specifically for this month’s prayer intention:

“God of life,

You know the innermost depths of our hearts —

the light and shadows within us,

the silent wounds that sometimes no one sees.

Today we bring before you our brothers and sisters

who struggle with challenges to their mental health,

who suffer in solitude with anxiety, depression, or any other mental illness.

You call them by name, with tenderness,

and in you they find dignity and hope.

Forgive us for the times we have looked the other way,

feeding the stigma and discrimination of persons with mental illnesses.

May your Church be an open house,

a safe space where everyone has a place —

a community that accompanies and never excludes,

that listens without judging and draws near without fear.

We pray to you, Lord, for those who care:

professionals, family members, volunteers —

men and women who, with patience and love,

build bridges of understanding and comfort.

Give them strength and compassion to sustain others.

Send your Spirit upon us,

that we may learn to welcome and integrate care for mental health

into the life and ministry of our communities and of the whole Church,

and thus become a living sign of your mercy,

which never abandons and always restores.

Amen.”

Catholic military archdiocese ‘appreciates’ Pentagon’s new religious affairs office

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, said it “appreciates” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement of a new Pentagon office dedicated to supporting religious members of the military.

Hegseth introduced the Office of Religious Affairs at the Department of Defense (DOD) in his Sept. 30 State of the Force Address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, which was attended by 600 officers and service members.

In his speech, Hegseth said the office will report directly to him and to the secretaries who serve after him. He said there will be “no staff filters” and “no bureaucratic dilution” but rather a “direct line to the secretary” for the chaplains.

“This wonʼt be a paper-pushing shop,” he said. “It will have real teeth. It will protect budgets, demand infrastructure, and strengthen religious support. The experts, our chaplains, will finally have an advocate at the highest levels. Policy and resources will serve the mission, not smother the mission.”

In a statement to EWTN News, the Catholic military archdiocese said it hopes the new office “will enhance and strengthen the support offered to the men, women and their families who serve in the military, and to the chaplain corps who strive to accompany our soldiers, sailors, and airmen across all service branches.”

“Placing spiritual readiness alongside other departmental priorities, and shortening the timeline between identified field needs and senior decisions can have the practical effect of resolving legacy constraints that historically limited chaplaincy support,” the statement said. “This Archdiocese appreciates the initiative and welcomes its implementation.”

Structural change

Hegseth explained the new structure is meant to ensure chaplains do not need to go through secular bureaucracy.

The secretary said, under the old system, “we let people with no expertise in faith or religion dictate the spiritual life of our warriors,” and the chaplains “were buried echelons deep, waiting for permission.”

“Decisions about faith and religion were made by secular careerists in cubicles and lawyers running around with red tape,” he said.

The secretary blamed the previous structure for budget cuts, failures to adequately meet needs for resourcing and manpower, and a lack of support for chapels on bases. He said faith had been treated as “an afterthought” even though only 5% of the military is nonreligious.

“Our department therefore has a sacred duty — first-class religious support wherever we send our warriors,” Hegseth said. “... For far too long, you know, we didnʼt prioritize that duty at all.”

Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, has supported some of Hegseth’s other reforms of the chaplaincy as well.

Broglio celebrated Hegseth’s removal of the official spiritual fitness guide, which the secretary said was “pushing secular humanism” and treating chaplains like “emotional support officers” rather than as chaplains.

The archbishop said the change allowed chaplains to focus on spiritual ministry “above and beyond everything else that they might ask the chaplains to do.”

Broglio also spoke positively of Hegseth’s decision to change the chaplain insignia on uniforms to reflect the faith role instead of the military rank.

“If the decision to eliminate the rank insignia for chaplains so as to favor the insignia indicating religious affiliation contributes to making chaplains more approachable, the archdiocese favors it,” the archbishop said in March.

Alternatively, the archdiocese faced problems with the Army in 2025 amid canceled religious contracts, which the DOD ultimately worked to restore.

Apart from the chaplaincy, Broglio has criticized some military decisions from President Donald Trump’s administration. In April, he echoed the concerns of Pope Leo XIV, saying it was “hard” to see how the Iran war could be justified under Catholic just war doctrine.

The archbishop was also critical of earlier threats to annex Greenland, along with attacks on alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela that killed more than 100 people.

Pittsburgh diocesan consultant reports rising exorcism requests

A lay member of the Rome‑based International Association of Exorcists said he has seen what he considers a significant rise in requests for exorcisms over the past five to eight years.

Adam Blai, a lay adviser in the Pittsburgh Diocese on cases involving alleged demonic activity, told “EWTN News Nightly” on Oct. 1 that the number of cases there has risen sharply in the past five years. He said he and his team pray with people weekly and that exorcists he works with nationwide report being extremely busy.

“For some reason, there’s an increase,” said Blai, who also teaches priests how to perform exorcisms at the Pope Leo XIII Institute at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois. “But the more important, beautiful part is the Holy Spirit is raising up this ministry.”

Blai said warding off attack from demonic spirits starts with avoiding occult or other practices that invite in the spirits. “They need permission,” he said. “The evil spirits need permission from God to do what they do.”

“When we play with the occult, with divination, with ghost hunting, with Ouija boards, we are reaching out to random spirits and saying, ‘I want my comfort or my information from you right now on my terms, Iʼm not going to wait on God, Iʼm not going to trust God, Iʼm not going to trust his providence or his grace, I’m going to seek out other spirits,’” Blai continued. “And when we do that, we form a relationship with them. And thatʼs the root of these extraordinary demonic problems.”

Blai said the Church has learned to “carefully discern” whether something is a spiritual problem, medical problem, misunderstanding, or even a false claim of possession.

“If we start saying these dramatic prayers over a person with mental illness that has delusional ideas, we could encourage those ideas,” he said.

Ultimately, Blai noted that the bishop has sole authority to determine which priests may say exorcism prayers. “Every priest has the power to do exorcisms in their ordination. What they donʼt have is permission to pick up the exorcism rite and pray it over somebody until the bishop gives that to them,” he said.

“Now, all that being said, is it wise to have a priest who is pious, has a good, solid spiritual life, is well known to the bishop? Absolutely. And do some priests have gifts of discernment that may help them in the ministry? Yes, but itʼs not required,” he concluded. “Jesus tends to provide the other people and gifts and support around the ministry that that exorcist needs.”

Pope Leo on AI art: Beyond aesthetics, ‘there is an ontological difference’

There is a fundamental difference between the art humans create and what artificial intelligence can make based on the work of others, Pope Leo XIV told a group of artists on Friday.

“The Church needs you,” the pontiff said at the Oct. 2 encounter at the Vatican. “This is especially true in this age of artificial intelligence, in which we urgently need to distinguish human art from what is produced by machines.”

“There is an ontological difference — even before an aesthetic one — between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of the human, whereas ‘authentic culture and art preserve this spark,’” Leo said, quoting from his encyclical on AI, Magnifica Humanitas.

The pope said this is the reason why the Catholic Church wishes to renew its alliance with artists and cultural institutions.

Leo’s address to artists and curators in the Apostolic Palace was part of a meeting on “The Art of Possibility: Weaving Together,” organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

The pope pointed to St. Augustine and his testimony of the “restlessness of the human heart in search of truth.”

“Art, when it is authentic, is also animated by this restlessness. For this reason, the Church has never considered art to be merely decorative. Instead, for the Church, art nurtures the fundamental posture of listening, through which we can learn about humanity’s aspirations and wounds, our thirst for beauty, justice and peace, and our search for meaning,” he said.

In the age of search engines and their endless, instantaneous answers that only “give us what we already want,” art is different, he noted.

Art “does not proceed by indexing but by inquiry,” the pontiff said. “Indeed, its inquiry is a focused attention that is not satisfied with the mere sum of facts, for it never ceases to dig deeper, seeking the thread that unites them. Your art, when it resists homogenization, when it draws our gaze, when it compels us to pause before that which cannot be consumed, is a form of cultural and spiritual regeneration.”

Leo cited the homily of his predecessor St. Paul VI from a Mass with artists in 1964.

“St. Paul VI spoke words that remain a landmark for the Church’s relationship with artists: ‘We need you,’ he said. ‘Our ministry needs your collaboration. For, as you know, our ministry is to preach and to make the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of the ineffable, of God, accessible and understandable — indeed, inspiring. And in this task, which translates the invisible world into accessible, intelligible forms, you are masters,’” Pope Leo quoted.

Belgian bishop renews push to ordain married men to priesthood

A Belgian bishop has renewed his push to ordain married men as priests in his diocese by 2028, despite no public Vatican authorization for the proposal.

In an interview in the October issue of Herder Korrespondenz, Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp said he traveled to Rome in June to present the matter to the Dicastery for the Clergy and the General Secretariat of the Synod.

Bonny linked a possible arrangement to the Synod on Synodality’s implementation phase. 

“I trust that an appropriate arrangement can be found by the end of the synodal process in the fall of 2028,” Bonny said according to CNA Deutsch, the German-language sister service of EWTN News. “It would be a fatal blow to the credibility and implementation of the entire synodal process if no arrangement were reached by then.”

Bonny first outlined his plans in March. He also participated in the German Synodal Way as an observer.

At the German bishops’ plenary assembly in 2022, Bonny said that “Rome must learn to live with a healthy dose of Germanic culture.” 

He referred to an open style of consultation and discussion, not the ordination of married men; the address was also released as a podcast.

Confidence in Pope Leo

The Vatican has not publicly commented on Bonny’s most recent remarks or announced any decision concerning his proposal.

Bonny told the German magazine he was continuing discussions within the Belgian bishops’ conference and holding conversations with potential candidates about further formation.

He said the Flemish dioceses faced a serious shortage of priests and that any step toward ordaining married men would need the agreement of both the Belgian bishops’ conference and the Vatican.

“How this step could take place with the agreement of the bishops’ conference and the Vatican is a question for the coming months,” Bonny said.

Bonny said canonists had told him canon law offered various lawful ways to address the question, but he did not identify a specific canonical mechanism or say Vatican officials had endorsed one.

He also said his confidence rested partly on Pope Leo XIV’s exercise of his office as a bridge-builder and on conversations with bishops in several countries and continents whom he said faced similar circumstances.

In his first address to the German bishops’ plenary, Archbishop Hubertus van Megen said that no local Church outranks another.

Under Canon 1042 of the Code of Canon Law, a man who has a wife is impeded from receiving sacred orders except when he is legitimately destined for the permanent diaconate. A diocesan bishop cannot unilaterally set aside that impediment or introduce a different priestly-ordination discipline in his diocese.

David Long, director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America and a canonist, told EWTN News in March that the question of ordaining married men “does not lie within the authority of a diocesan bishop acting on his own.”

“Any current change in practice in a Latin diocese would require action by the Holy See and could not be accomplished by a unilateral decision by a diocesan bishop, no matter how pastorally urgent the circumstances may be,” he said.

Archdiocese of Baltimore set to ordain highest number of seminarians in 50 years

The Archdiocese of Baltimore expects to ordain its largest single-year class in more than 50 years as the number of men in priestly formation continues to rise.

The archdiocese said it will ordain 12 priests in 2027, one in January and 11 in June. Overall, the numbers have grown from 28 seminarians in 2007, 52 in 2020, and 66 this year. In 2026, 14 men, ranging in age from 17 to 36, entered formation from 14 different parishes.

“This has not been sudden,” Archbishop William E. Lori said. “It’s been building every year, and this is due to a lot of people praying before the Blessed Sacrament. It’s due to a good vocations team. It’s also due to pastors who are encouraging vocations in their parishes — and to parents who are generously open to the possibility that their son might have a priestly vocation.”

Father Steven Roth, vocations director and associate vicar for clergy, told EWTN News that when Lori came to Baltimore, the archbishop was given staggering statistics on the declining number of clergy there, and “from the start, he was determined to reverse that trend.”

Lori ordained five priests and 12 transitional deacons at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in May 2026.

“We did the counterintuitive,” Roth said. “We raised the bar for the application process. Because of that, we now have 66 vocations directors,” he said of the 66 current seminarians.

“Our success is based on the men who have said yes. Theyʼre the best advertisement for us,” he said, recounting a scenario where a man was on the fence about applying to seminary, but a seminarian on a summer assignment at a parish helped the man decide to apply.

Newly ordained priests are filling positions that have been empty for years: hospital, high school and college chaplaincies, and parishes that have not had an associate pastor in decades.

Roth said they are already seeing the positive effects: at one parish in particular, he said, there has been “a drastic difference” since the arrival of a young priest who is assisting the pastor: "To have a young priest with vigor, it just energizes the community; it excites everyone to continue this work … there are more people now, and the energy in the parish is different.”

What brought the initial increase, Roth said, were efforts to get parish leadership to see there was a need for more vocations. “They’ve run with it,” he said. “Pastors have been huge supporters of the archbishop’s push and the key to the rising numbers.”

Many parishes have created a culture of vocation awareness, encouraging Eucharistic adoration and welcoming him and Father Lenin Suarez, the associate director of vocations, to speak. Pastors have personally invited young men to go to attend discernment retreats such as Quo Vadis, and Quo Vadis Beyond, directed toward high school-aged men.

Both of the archdiocese’s propaedeutic houses, in Emmitsburg and Baltimore, are full. Three of this year’s new seminarians will spend that first year, the propaedeutic year — a period of prayer, discernment, and human formation — at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary instead, working with the Source of All Hope program among the homeless.

Formation can last up to nine years, which Roth said is intended to be a time of healthy discernment in which the men have the opportunity to reflect on their experiences.

In addition to academics, seminarians undergo background checks, meet with priests and formators, attend spiritual direction, and work at various parish ministries as they discern and before they are formally accepted.

“We have an intense process, once we think they’re capable of formation, then we give them the application” to the seminary, Roth said. “We don’t just send an application to everyone.”

While there are men who leave, Roth said it’s a small number. “We do have men who discern out and become wonderful husbands and fathers,” he said.

Roth said the quality of the candidates is impressive.

“I’m impressed with them all the time,” he said. He described how some have a charism for working with the poor in Baltimore City, spending time with the drug addicted and the homeless. “They’re not afraid at all,” Roth said.

He also described the fraternity among the seminarians, calling it “incredible.”

“When a man is accepted as a seminarian, the other guys immediately start emailing him, inviting him to events,” Roth said. “If a man is sick, or if a family member of his is sick or dies, they all rally around” and care for him.

A few years ago, a man in a college seminary broke his leg in a football game. The other seminarians reconfigured the seminary so he could come back sooner while he was still in a wheelchair. “It was inspiring to me,” Roth said. “They were all cheering him on.”

The vocations director said that while “we celebrate not only the number as well as the caliber” of the young men, “the work is not done. There is so much more opportunity for evangelization. That is why we have to keep praying for vocations.”

“Our priests work so hard, they are stretched to the limits. We hope to start expanding our evangelization efforts,” Roth said. “We’ve envisioned journeying with families who’ve lost a loved one. What usually happens when someone dies is the parish works with the family though the funeral, and that’s it. At best you get an invite to an All Souls liturgy later in the year. Imagine if a priest had the time to walk with the family in the months and years after a death, or facilitate a group of laypeople to support the family?”

Regarding the sacraments, Roth said while the Church is good at providing them, it is not great with the follow-up. He would like to see priests supporting young married couples through the first years of marriage and after the baptism of their children. He’d also like to see priests and lay members reach out to fallen away Catholics, showing care and inviting them back to the Church.

Roth said he hopes publicity about the rising numbers of seminarians doesn’t mean people will stop praying for more priests. On the contrary, he said, “the archbishop says this is the time for more prayers, for more men to say yes. We are asking for more vocations in every realm: more marriages; for more young women to enter religious communities.”

“This is a very broad project. This does not mean the job is done, it’s just the beginning,” he said.

Catholic Church demands swift clarification of bishop’s murder

The Archbishop of Maputo and vice president of the Episcopal Conference of Mozambique (CEM), João Carlos Hatoa Nunes, calls on the authorities on the investigation into the murder of Osório Citora Afonso, Bishop of the Diocese of Quelimane, in the central province of Zambézia.

Bishop Afonso, who was also Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Beira, in the central province of Sofala, was shot dead last June at the Episcopal Palace of Quelimane, his official residence.

According to the country’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), the Bishop was murdered with an AKM-type firearm. A bullet was founded in the victim’s chest, right in the heart.

SERNIC confirmed to have arrested three individuals for being allowed to be in the murder, claiming that “the investigation continues with the aim of fully circumstances clarifying the that led to the death of the religious leader.” However, there are reports that among the arrestees there is a priest.

According to Nunes, interviewed by AIM, the investigation should establish what actually happened in order to prevent speculation the bishop surrounding’s death.

“It is the truth that we want. What happened actually in that house, on that day? The Catholic Church is awaiver the outcome of the investigation,” he said.

Nunes believes that the fact that the incident inside occurred the bishop’s own residence makes the case particularly concerning. “If it had happened on the road, we could have looked at it. But now, it happened in the house, there was a gun and a shot was,” he said.

According to the archbishop, authorities have seized materials that could help shed light on the case, including mobile phones and computers.

Nunes acknowledged that criminal investigations take time, but stressed “it was important for the findings to be made public once the necessary evidence has been gathered.”

“The longer it takes, the greater the risk of speculation emerging. The Catholic hierarchy continues to urge for a transparent investigation to maintain the confidence of the faithful,” he said.

Bishop suspended following complaints

The Bishop of Salisbury has been suspended following two complaints against him being brought to the next stage of a Church of England process.

The church says the suspension of The Rt Revd Stephen Lake is a neutral act while allegations are progressed and he is asked to respond to them.

The complaints were brought following allegations of financial misconduct and concerns raised with the National Safeguarding Team relating to his conduct.

The Bishop voluntarily stepped down from duties in the diocese - which covers most of Wiltshire, Dorset and the Channel Islands - in April and The Rt Revd Karen Gorham, Bishop of Sherborne, is acting Bishop of Salisbury.

Lake was appointed Bishop of Salisbury in 2022, previously serving as the Dean of Gloucester Cathedral.

He became a priest in 1989.

In a previous statement, the bishop said he had been co-operating "fully with the investigations" and looked "forward to the opportunity to be able to respond to the allegations brought under the Clergy Discipline Measure".

In regards to the financial misconduct allegations, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Salisbury said in April the two funds audited related to the office of the Bishop of Salisbury but were "separate from parish share and other funds controlled by the Diocesan Board of Finance".

When safeguarding concerns emerged in July, Wiltshire Police were not taking action and the allegations did not involve children.

Bishop says 'churches are not concert venues' after Nathan Carter's Boyle gig cancelled

Bishop Kevin Doran says the diocese has a written policy for concerts in churches

The Bishop of Elphin says churches are not concert venues or disco settings.

It's after a Nathan Carter concert, planned for St Joseph's Church in Boyle in December, was cancelled.

It's understood the new parish priest, Fr John Gannon, objects to such concerts in churches.

Nathan Carter says he's 'extremely disappointed' it can't go ahead and anyone who bought tickets will be fully refunded.

Bishop Kevin Doran says the diocese has a written policy for concerts in churches.

Mistrial declared in mental fitness inquiry of man accused of killing Cork-born bishop

A mistrial has been declared in an inquiry to decide whether the man accused of murdering a Cork bishop in Los Angeles is  mentally competent to be tried.

Jury selection got under way for the competency inquiry for Carlos Medina at Hollywood Courthouse last week. 

Medina was charged in February 2023 with the murder of 69-year-old Bishop David O’Connell in his Los Angeles home in February 2023. 

He was also charged with a special allegation that he used a firearm during the commission of an offence.

Bishop O’Connell, a native of Brooklodge in Glanmire, had served as a priest in the Los Angeles archdiocese since he was ordained in 1979. 

The sheriff of Los Angeles County, Robert Luna, described him as a peacemaker who “had a passion for serving those in need while improving our community".

The case against Medina was stalled in October 2024 after his lawyers raised concerns about his ability to stand trial during a pre-trial hearing.

Now, a spokesman for the Los Angeles district attorney’s office has told the Irish Examiner: “There was a mistrial in the competency trial, and a status hearing is set for October 8.” 

It is expected a decision will then be made on what will happen next in the case.

The concerns of Medina’s lawyers that he was not competent to stand trial were raised because of the interactions they had with him after his arrest. 

It is understood his behaviour while on remand in prison had also sparked concern ahead of the proceedings being stalled.

An independent expert brought in to assess Medina believed he was not well enough to stand trial.

If Medina is found mentally unfit to stand trial, he will be required to undergo psychiatric treatment by a licensed psychologist. 

Following that, the judge will decide on what options of treatment are required, which could include a referral to a state mental health facility for a period of up to four months.

After that, the court could grant additional time for treatment, or order the criminal proceedings against him could continue. 

If a trial goes ahead and he is convicted, Medina could face up to 35 years to life in prison.

Nearly 1,000 children were abused at three Massachusetts dioceses, state probe finds

More than 270 Catholic clerics sexually abused nearly 1,000 children across three Massachusetts dioceses over decades, according to an investigative report the state's attorney general released ‌on Wednesday.

The report provided what Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called the first full public accounting of the abuse and institutional failures that allowed it to proliferate for more than half a century at the Catholic dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester.

Most of the abuse detailed in the report occurred before 2002, ​the year the clergy sex abuse scandal burst onto the international stage due to a Pulitzer Prize-winning report by the ​Boston Globe on how officials at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston routinely covered up sex abuse by ⁠priests.

The state attorney general's investigation documented years of similar issues at the three dioceses in other parts of Massachusetts, which Campbell said ​knew children were being abused by priests and other clerics.

"Too often they protected the reputation of the church rather than protecting children," Campbell ​said.

The report counted at least 275 members of the clergy who were accused of abusing 944 children.

"Behind every one of those numbers is a child whose safety was violated, a family that was changed forever, and a survivor who carried the trauma of that abuse for years and, in many cases, decades," Campbell ​told reporters.

The Diocese of Worcester, in a statement, said it would study the report "to identify any additional improvements that can be made to ​respond to victims of past abuse and to continue to strengthen efforts to keep children safe."

Fall River Bishop Edgar da Cunha issued an apology to ‌survivors of ⁠child sexual abuse, saying he was "filled with sorrow over the historical account of incidents and practices reflecting the tragic failings to protect our most vulnerable."

Springfield Bishop William Byrne in a statement called the report "humbling." He said prior to its release, his diocese had been "busy correcting our past failures, putting into place many new, trauma-informed policies and procedures."

The 2002 reporting by the Boston Globe, which was later chronicled in the 2015 ​Oscar-winning movie "Spotlight," set off a ​global wave of investigations that found ⁠similar patterns at dioceses worldwide and prompted the Massachusetts legislature to pass a series of reforms.

In 2019, then-Attorney General Maura Healey, now Massachusetts governor, launched a criminal probe into the Roman Catholic Dioceses of ​Fall River, Springfield and Worcester to determine if they or their leadership bore responsibility in connection to ​their supervision of ⁠clergy who abused children.

Campbell, who said she herself was a victim of child abuse at the hands of a relative, said her office made three referrals to local district attorneys during the probe, leading to charges in one case in Worcester.

Her office did not pursue any prosecutions due ⁠to some ​conduct not being illegal at the time it occurred or because the statute of ​limitations had expired, she said.

Campbell said the report demonstrated the need for the dioceses to institute reforms and for new state laws supporting abuse survivors, including eliminating the statute ​of limitations for civil claims involving childhood sexual abuse.

Priest of archdiocese on leave of absence affiliates with schismatic movement

Expressing great sadness, Archbishop Bernard Hebda wrote to parishioners of St. Michael and St. Mary in Stillwater that their former parochial vicar, Father Philip Conklin, has affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), whose leadership was declared in schism with the Catholic Church this past July.

Father Conklin, who was ordained in 2024 and served as parochial vicar in Stillwater from July 2024 until March 2026, has been on leave for the past six months to discern his priestly vocation, the archbishop wrote in a letter that Father Michael Creagan, pastor of St. Michael and St. Mary, shared with parishioners Sept. 30.

“After confirming with Father Conklin that he does not intend to cease this affiliation, I have felt compelled to commence a canonical process to clarify the situation and his status,” the archbishop wrote. “At the same time, I have also informed Father Conklin that he is not to exercise any public priestly ministry.

“This is a painful situation that merits our fervent prayers for Father Conklin, for his family and for the parishes of Saint Michael and Saint Mary,” the archbishop continued. “Please know of my prayers for all of you and your loved ones.”

In July, SSPX leadership rejected Pope Leo XIV’s plea and consecrated four new bishops in Switzerland without the requisite papal mandate. 

The Vatican declared that the July 1 action in Switzerland placed the SSPX bishops and priests in schism with the Catholic Church and resulted in the immediate excommunication of the consecrating bishop, the co-consecrator and the four newly ordained bishops.

Greenland Catholics eye new security agreement with relief, concern and commitment to the Gospel, says priest

Catholics in Greenland are regarding a new security agreement with a mixture of relief and concern, while remaining committed to the call of the Gospel, said the island’s only Catholic parish priest.

On Sept. 22, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland signed an agreement amending the 1951 document that authorized the U.S. to create military bases in semiautonomous Greenland, which along with the Faroe Islands and the European nation of Denmark forms the Kingdom of Denmark. 

New Agreement Expands U.S. Military Presence in Greenland

The deal allows for modernization and expansion of the existing U.S. Pituffik Space base, as well as the creation of two other installations at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig. 

Other military facilities may also be established, with the U.S. also confirming free overflight, overland and undersea access across Greenland. The agreement additionally restricts foreign investment to NATO, NATO-aligned nations and the EU.

The trilateral agreement followed months of President Donald Trump’s calls to acquire Greenland for U.S. national security interests, with military force noted as a possible option.

For the island’s 56,000 residents — a majority of whom are Inuit, and about 500 of whom are Catholic — the deal assuages, at least in part, recent anxieties. 

“I think there is some relief whenever there is dialogue instead of confrontation,” said Father Tomas Majcen, a Conventual Franciscan who serves at Christ the King Church in the capital city of Nuuk.

Small Catholic Community Navigates Relief and Uncertainty

The Slovenian-born Father Majcen and two other Franciscan friars make up the Conventual Franciscan Mission in Denmark, part of the order’s Province of St. Jerome in Croatia. 

In 2023, the three Franciscans took over pastoral care in Greenland at the request of Bishop Czeslaw Kozon of Copenhagen, Denmark, where the mission also serves two parishes.

In a Sept. 26 email, Father Majcen told OSV News that although the agreement offsets some fears, “people naturally remain attentive and somewhat concerned when their homeland and future are being discussed at the international level.”

Priest Urges Focus on Greenland’s People, Not Just Strategic Interests

“Greenland is not simply a piece of land or a strategic location. It is the home of people, families, communities and a unique culture,” said Father Majcen, writing from Copenhagen ahead of his late October return to Nuuk. 

He added, “This human dimension should never be forgotten.”

Father Majcen said that the faithful in Greenland are prioritizing the Gospel over the headlines.

“For us as a Catholic community, the most important thing is to continue doing what we have always tried to do: to be present, to pray, to celebrate the sacraments and to offer a place where people can find peace and community,” he said.

The priest stressed that “geopolitical situations may change, but people’s everyday needs remain very simple. People need someone who listens to them, a community where they feel welcome, and hope when the world around them feels uncertain.”

The task of providing that presence is “also part of evangelization,” said Father Majcen. “Sometimes evangelization is not about having the perfect words, but simply about being there for people.”

A former SSPX priest embraces life as a gay man and tattoo artist

In March 2024, Francis Palmquist bent over his right calf and carefully tattooed the tear rolling down Mary’s cheek as depicted in the famous image. It was six years after he left Catholic priesthood and the ultra-traditionalist Society of St. Pius X.

“Happy Mary doesn’t resonate with me, but Mary in front of the cross feeling so much sorrow — a sword going through her heart — that’s where I relate,” Palmquist said. “Our Lady of Sorrows” was the first piece he tattooed on himself in the realism style, which has quickly become his signature.

In some traditionalist circles, Palmquist’s story — from SSPX priest to his two-year stint on YouTube discussing the faith and being gay — is already infamous. 

Unlike in more mainstream branches of Catholicism, there aren’t other former members of the society, which rejects many Second Vatican Council reforms, who are talking on the internet about coming out. But in the last four years, Palmquist’s online presence has reflected his new vocation: a dedication to his clients and tattooing craft through his business, St. Francis Tattoo.

“He’s a prophet for authenticity,” said C., a fan who asked to be identified by an initial only to maintain relationships with his family. A former older Latin Mass attendee, C. said the vulnerability Palmquist shares, still without attacking the church, helped him to be more authentic and less ideologically defensive.

The journey to this point — where Palmquist, 37, is fully “being myself,” living with his partner and throwing himself into his art — has not been easy, he recalled to RNS during an August interview at the tattoo studio in Exton, Pennsylvania where he works. Leaving the priesthood in 2017 was so traumatic that his brain “shut off religion,” he said. He’s not sure he’d remember the steps of the Mass. But he has also spent his years since then inscribing symbols from his former life all over his body — an owl carrying the Sacred Heart of Jesus on his chest, the Immaculate Heart of Mary just below it and Mary Magdalene above the devil on his right arm. He has asked himself, “Why the heck am I getting all these religious tattoos?” 

Growing up in Belmont, North Carolina, a Charlotte suburb, Palmquist doesn’t remember being interested in religion when his family attended the most common Catholic liturgy, known to traditionalists as the Novus Ordo. But after his mother decided the family would attend an SSPX chapel when he was a preteen, he threw himself in head first.

“ There was almost like this silent competition for who could be holier,” said Ryan Arcia, a lifelong friend whose family switched to the same SSPX parish around the same time.

The SSPX is known for celebrating the older Latin Mass, a liturgy used before the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The reforms that the SSPX rejects include  celebrating Mass in local languages and embracing dialogue with other religions. After ordaining bishops in July without the pope’s approval, the group and the lay Catholics who formally participate in it were excommunicated.

The SSPX, which says there are approximately 25,000 lay people attending its chapels in the U.S., represents just a fraction of the Catholics in the U.S. who attend the older Latin Mass.

But Palmquist’s priest went beyond typical early 2000s SSPX traditionalism. He recommended parishioners get rid of their televisions and rock-and-roll albums, Arcia remembers. Palmquist said the priest reinforced a version of masculinity that felt inaccessible.

Arcia said he never wondered whether Palmquist might be gay — even when he was “sticking up” for his friend when other boys called him feminine. “That’s the very last thing you think about your best friend” in that world, Arcia said.

But Palmquist said he always felt a “natural attraction” to men. Confused, he found “peace” and “order” at Mass and looked for every opportunity to be in the church. Like many SSPX young men, he began to consider becoming a priest. 

Massimo Introvigne, a sociologist at the Center for Studies on New Religions based in Italy, who interviewed SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, said Lefebvre’s goal was to “freeze the priesthood as it was in the 1950s,” placing heightened importance on the role.

Palmquist referred to his seven years in a Winona, Minnesota, seminary as “militaristic.” He thought he was “getting over” his attraction to men, but he now recognizes that was “a facade.” Looking back, he believes his spiritual director, with whom he was “100% open,” should have cautioned him against getting ordained. 

But instead, in June 2016, he laid face down outside the seminary chapel and was ordained. The back of Palmquist’s ordination card reads, “I thirst,” chosen because of his intense spirituality.

Instead of joining his classmates in English-language ministries, he moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, to hear confessions, give homilies and teach philosophy in Spanish — a language he barely knew.

“Back then, I just bulldozed through my limitations, and I couldn’t do enough. I couldn’t be enough,” Palmquist said. “Once you’re known for being that person who goes the extra mile, then that’s the expectation, especially for yourself.”

Soon, his situation began spiraling out of control, he said. His superiors seemed to dislike him because he was American, and he struggled to connect with the other priests. Missing community, he downloaded an anonymous chat app and connected with other gay men. 

Many of the conversations were “normal,” Palmquist remembers, “ but it was the first time I heard someone say, like, ‘You’re really handsome.’”

“ This was like the beginning of my little double life,” he said. 

He struggled with sleep and disordered eating, going from 180 to 140 pounds. He began drinking as his mental health worsened. “It got to the point where I looked in the mirror and it was like I was a shell of who I was before,” he said.

Palmquist said his seminary rector suggested he pray more. But he also told Palmquist, “ I don’t think you were ever supposed to be a priest.” Eventually Palmquist asked his Mexican superiors for a therapist — help that Palmquist said never arrived. (The director of communications for the SSPX District of the USA did not respond to a request for comment.)

Rather, in December 2017, his superior told Palmquist he’d be going to a house in Kansas City known to take problem priests. He contacted a friend he met at a gay bar, “freaking out,” he recalled. The next night, hours before he was supposed to leave for Kansas City, he met that friend and disappeared in the middle of the night.

Arcia, who also left SSPX, learned about Palmquist’s exit from his mother. “ Francis was kind of a celebrity within the SSPX — a lot of people knew who he was — so when he left, it was a bigger thing than it needed to be,” Arcia said. 

Palmquist spent the next seven years in Mexico, trying to find financial stability, reinventing himself and going to therapy. A month after he left the priesthood, he got his first tattoo — the owl carrying a Sacred Heart across his chest. It was a nod to the idea that owls “see the clearest in the dark.” In that dark period of his life, he felt he could see clearly, but he wanted to move forward with “the heart” of his past, he said.

“ I’m going to live this new life, but as close to being a Catholic as possible,” he said of his mindset. He added, these “were ideas that I had meditated hours on, that I had dissected, that I had attacked and tried to refute.”

Through his first gay relationship, Palmquist met a tattoo artist and realized it was a career in which he could incorporate his longtime love of art. He also began to write a book about his experience leaving the priesthood.

His therapist suggested he try making YouTube videos before releasing the book to test out dealing with public exposure, creating his channel, “I am Judas Project,” in 2020. Palmquist said he wanted to prevent others in similar situations from “feeling so alone.”

During his two years on YouTube, he felt ready to move back to the U.S. and started to put down roots in Philadelphia. And as his focus shifted toward tattooing, Palmquist gave up the channel.

His business, St. Francis Tattoo, is a nod to his religious past. “I definitely don’t think I’m a saint,” he said, laughing. But he works below a San Damiano crucifix, the image of Christ that spoke to St. Francis and eventually led him to renounce worldly goods to serve the church.

“ The Franciscans in general, their whole lives were given to the poor — just complete self-dedication for others. And that’s how I want to live my life,” Palmquist said. 

Now, he channels his impulse for service into his work with tattoo clients, he said. Doing excellent work isn’t enough — Palmquist finds himself checking in on and caring for them, “kind of being a priest to them in a sense.”

Lindsay Healey, a client, said her experience working with Palmquist has been different from other artists she has worked with. For her first tattoo with him, Palmquist is creating an arm sleeve that brings the figures on playing cards to life. 

“ I’m actually a pretty shy person, but he made me feel really comfortable, and through the sessions, he’s constantly checking on me” to make sure she can tolerate the pain, Healey said. “He’s a great artist, but honestly, he is an even better friend.”

Palmquist hopes to have the opportunity to mentor other tattoo artists. “ Art has always been about passing down the knowledge that was given to you,” he said. “ There’s so much good with what we’ve been given from the past.”

His skepticism of modernity impacts his feelings about LGBTQ+ Catholic Masses. He said he attended a few and felt like he was being pandered to.

At seminary, Palmquist said he learned Catholic doctrine cannot change without becoming “unrecognizable.” Of proponents of LGBTQ-affirming Catholicism, Palmquist asked, “ Are they doing it because it’s the truth, or are they doing it because it’s just the modern thing now?”

Still, Palmquist said he feels at peace and sees his gay relationships as confirmation he made the right decision to leave the priesthood. “I think I am where I should be,” he said.

And, right now, he doesn’t feel the need to work out the conflict between the doctrine of his former faith and his current life. “I’m not at my destination yet,” he said. “I never want to come across like I’m some beacon of whatever. It’s just a very human experience.”