Georgetown University’s Updated Clerical Abuse Webpage Omits Multiple Survivors’ Allegations

Georgetown University’s updated Title IX webpage dedicated to clerical sex abuse now includes Fr. Alvaro Ribeiro, S.J., but omits the multiple allegations of his sexual misconduct The Hoya publicized last week.

The new webpage, which was changed immediately after The Hoya published its investigation, only notes that Ribeiro resigned after a 2010 university investigation, passing over three public allegations of additional misconduct in the 15 years prior. 

To experts and survivors, that nominal language reaffirms Georgetown’s apparent unwillingness to publicly recognize or adequately address misconduct.

Last week, The Hoya confirmed that Ribeiro faced at least four sexual misconduct allegations while at Georgetown — three detailed in The Hoya’s reporting, and at least one that led to the university inquiry and his resignation. 

The Hoya’s investigation was the first public report of a Jesuit engaging in sexual misconduct at Georgetown after being placed on leave following similar issues.

Steven Slawinski (CAS ’97), who accused Ribeiro of sexually harassing and groping him in the mid-1990s, said Georgetown’s webpage changes feel like “lip service.”

“It really makes me disappointed in Georgetown,” Slawinski told The Hoya. “It sends a message that they’re covering their ass, and that they’re circling the wagons and they’re not really concerned about this as a problem.”

Experts said the Jesuits’ internal reporting structure, which does not require them to relay conduct reports to university officials, likely allowed Ribeiro to quietly return to campus. 

Because of that, it remains unclear if Georgetown ever knew about the three misconduct cases before the 2010 investigation.

On the new Title IX page, Georgetown lists its novel April agreement with the local Jesuit province to ensure misconduct reports are “appropriately shared” with the university.

But the site’s vague language is the exact same as the university’s statement to The Hoya last week, which came six months after the agreement was first established and which survivors of Ribeiro’s alleged misconduct condemned as insufficient.

Slawinski said The Hoya’s reporting forced Georgetown’s hand.

“I think they wouldn’t have made the changes had the article not come out, and it’s very vague about what they’re going to do” Slawinski said.

Georgetown’s public admission comes over two decades after John, another survivor who is referred to by a pseudonym, reported Ribeiro’s alleged misconduct to the local Jesuit province and seven years after a third survivor reported it directly to university officials.

John said Georgetown must confront its years-long silence, in part by adding his allegations to the webpage.

“It makes it seem like it’s less severe than it is,” John told The Hoya. “If you’re going to do it, then provide all the information.”

“I thought I did my job by reporting him,” John added.

Slawinski said Georgetown has continued to disrespect survivors.

“It felt pretty dismissive to me and to the other men that came forward,” he said.

The Society of Jesus placed Ribeiro, who died in 2013, on leave in 1998 after John reported him for sexual harassment, alleging that the priest offered him pornography and shook his penis in front of him. 

A year after Ribeiro returned to campus in 2000, he met another student who later alleged similar misconduct, including that Ribeiro attempted to kiss him after he graduated.

Ribeiro resigned after a 2010 university investigation found he had engaged in “unwanted touching of students” and “other inappropriate behavior.” None of the three survivors The Hoya spoke with spurred this inquiry.

A university spokesperson did not respond to comment requests for this story, but said last week that Georgetown officials “condemn in the strongest possible terms any clergy abuse.”

“We are committed to ensuring that University policies are as strong as possible in supporting survivors,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya.

John Fortunato, a Fordham University professor who researched university responses to the Catholic Church’s clerical sex abuse crisis, said Georgetown’s response to The Hoya’s reporting does little to rebuild community trust.

“When you get into an institutional crisis such as this, and one that’s not born out of a single incident, but a repeated pattern, the benefit of the doubt has been taken away,” Fortunato told The Hoya.

“It can’t be a one-time solution,” he added. “It’s got to be continuous corrective actions.”

Georgetown’s conduct, Fortunato said, has not met these standards.

The new Title IX webpage also removed the “ongoing work” section that The Hoya disclosed was outdated. That section used to list a board of directors working group aimed at addressing clerical sex abuse that former University President John J. DeGioia (CAS ’79, GRD ’95) established in 2020. 

Now, the webpage says the working group became a subcommittee in 2021, but no such committee is listed on the board’s website.

Slawinski said the update remains unconvincing.

“Georgetown is hiding behind this vague, nebulous subcommittee that doesn’t seem to have any rules or numbers, and now they’re saying that its investigation has wrapped up,” Slawinski said. “I’m glad that they added Ribeiro as one of the people that they are concerned about, but I think this goes a lot deeper than just two priests and something on their website.”

The previous Title IX webpage acknowledged students’ sexual misconduct allegations against the late former Provost J. Donald Freeze, S.J., but did not list any of the “Georgetown 14” — the Georgetown-affiliated Jesuits named in the local Jesuit province’s 2018 list of priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors. 

None of those Jesuits’ alleged misconduct occurred during their tenures at Georgetown.

Ribeiro is now listed beneath Freeze, and the Georgetown 14 remain absent from the site.

Georgetown made no public statement recognizing The Hoya’s recent reporting, and did not announce the changes to the Title IX webpage. 

For experts and survivors, that lack of transparency raises serious concerns about compliance with the university’s new information-sharing agreement.

Keith Rohman, a workplace misconduct and Title IX investigator, said “appropriately” in the April agreement is a “weasel word” that allows Georgetown and Jesuits to tailor misconduct protocols to their private interests.

“It’s that word which suggests a level of control, and the Catholic Church hasn’t earned the right to make that judgment on their own,” Rohman told The Hoya.

The Boston Globe first publicized how the Catholic Church systematically concealed sexually abusive priests in 2002 by relocating accused priests without notifying the public. 

Since then, thousands of suvivors across the country have raised sexual abuse allegations against Catholic clergy.

Slawinski said he does not trust the April protocol, calling on Georgetown to publish the full agreement with the Jesuits.

“I think that should be transparent,” Slawinski said. “Who receives it? Is it the Title IX coordinator or campus minister or the rector?”

When asked by The Hoya for additional details about the protocol’s compliance mechanisms, the university spokesperson only gave its formal title and ignored other questions.

Fortunato said when institutions face misconduct patterns, new protocols are not enough. Instead, he said, universities must respond directly to survivors’ concerns.

“In this particular incident, this would be installing reporting procedures and then also instilling a confidence that something’s going to be done,” Fortunato said.

“Without those steps, that corrective action, I don’t think you’re getting that trust back — and in fact you’re further eroding it,” Fortunato added.

For Slawinski, Georgetown’s lackluster response has done little to address his core goal, which has remained the same since he first reported Ribeiro in 2018. He has received no reassurance, he said, that what happened to him would not happen to someone else.

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and it’s difficult to discount this pattern,” Slawinski said.

Rome reporter's new memoir sheds light on why Vatican reform remains tricky

Early on during the Francis papacy, I sat at dinner with a cardinal and listened to him vent his frustration at the Vatican's sclerotic bureaucracy and resistance to change. 

Pope Francis had been elected to reform the institution and even then there were signs that this would be no easy task, that the system was too entrenched. 

"What would it take for things to change?" the cardinal was asked. 

"Heads on pikes lining the Tiber," he replied without pause.

Things in Rome may appear one way to outsiders, but — like the city itself — dig a little bit and get to know the right players, and a different reality emerges. 

A riveting new book offers a glimpse behind the curtain, unveiling the people, places and processes that make Italy tick.

The cardinal's memorable quip came to mind reading Jason Horowitz's new memoir, The Italian Job, chronicling nearly a quarter-century of living and reporting on Italy.

For nearly a decade, Horowitz — who is a friend and former colleague from my time as the National Catholic Reporter's Vatican correspondent — served as the New York Times' Rome bureau chief. 

He brilliantly covered all the complexities of life in a country where organizational personnel changes are almost impossible to make, where the word "accountability" doesn't even really exist in Italian and where new laws are made in order to circumvent existing laws.

"A country known for its history of enormous creativity was now risk averse, conservative, and frankly a little uninspiring," writes Horowitz explaining the paralysis and dysfunction that often seems to plague the country today. 

The same could be said for the Vatican's institutional culture, as that cardinal lamented over a decade ago.

While Horowitz's chronicles of life in il bel paese isn't Vatican-centric, it conveniently serves as a guide to understanding why Vatican reform remains a perennial challenge in a country where tradition reigns supreme and innovation often feels like a relic of the past.

When Pope Benedict XVI became the first pontiff to voluntarily resign in 600 years, he did so at a moment of crisis. 

Financial mismanagement and clerical abuse scandals had burdened his papacy and he admitted he lacked the strength to govern. Enter Francis, who was elected in 2013 riding what was widely considered a reform mandate.

Twelve years later, the reform he delivered wasn't overwhelmingly bureaucratic in nature, but rather shifting the perception of the church in the world around it. 

Now, hopes remain high that the Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV can introduce some American-style management to what at its core is still an Italian institution — for better and for worse.

Horowitz was on the ground for all of the highs and lows of the Francis papacy and he writes comedically but without condescension about it all. The Italian Job is a love letter to Italy but not because of la dolce vita. 

That would sell the country short. It's because this Jewish kid from Queens, New York, took seriously the wisdom that Pope John Paul II would often repeat to seminarians: "Imparare Roma" — learn Rome.

The book is chock-full of amusing tales of Horowitz sipping spritzes with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the "bunga bunga" parties that defined the Berlusconi era, and jet-setting around Europe with Steve Bannon, who helped galvanize the resistance to Francis among traditionalists (including with the support of some of the pope's own cardinals).

More sobering are Horowitz's accounts of floodwaters threatening Venice; the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, where the health crisis first began in Europe; and his attempts to understand Italy's plummeting fertility rates and rapidly aging population and what this demographic winter might mean for its future. If Italy is a country that often feels stuck in the past, for Horowitz it's also a land that allowed him to see into the future, giving him a glimpse into the rise of right-wing populism, immigration debates and climate change.

Especially moving is when Horowitz takes off his reporter's cap and writes personally about the illness of and eventual death of his father and the personal toll that a foreign correspondent endures trying to build a home in one's adopted country while being separated from one's own. 

He then puts that cap back on by trading correspondence with Francis about aging and mortality, visiting Sardinia's "blue zone" with a high population of centenarian residents, and talking to the former head of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Life, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who makes a convincing case that limits, including death, help to provide meaning to one's life. 

The archbishop laments to Horowitz that much of the world seems to have lost a sense of intergenerational solidarity, but Rome, Paglia observed, challenges that trend.

That reality is put on full display in a chapter where Horowitz takes readers along on his journeys on the papal plane traveling around the world with an increasingly elderly and vulnerable Francis. 

Once, on a trip to Cyprus that took place during Hanukkah, Horowitz had the entire press corps laughing when he gave a confused Francis gelt and a dreidel — and encouraged him to take up a game with the cardinals. 

There's also a humorous account of Horowitz getting berated by a Vatican press officer after he failed to board a bus in conflict-ridden South Sudan because he'd gotten caught up in a conversation with a local warlord. 

(What's not included in the book — because Horowitz is a mensch and wouldn't want to heap praise on himself — is how that evening, after the events of the day had concluded and some of us Vatican reporters were relaxing on the hotel rooftop, he sent over a round of beers to our handlers to make amends for earlier in the day and toast their efforts to keep us safe.)

At a recent book launch event at New York's Rizzoli Bookstore, Horowitz recalled some of these adventures and told his New York Times colleague Maggie Haberman that Francis was similar to former U.S. President Bill Clinton in that being around people is what gave them both energy and purpose.

For Francis, he continued, there was special attention to the peripheries — marginalized, suffering and overlooked people — and these international travels brought this into special focus.

"You can't help but be changed by that," Horowitz told the crowd.

As he said that, I thought back to that South Sudan rooftop where Francis had brought the world's media to the world's youngest country to spotlight efforts to preserve a fragile peace after a bloody civil war. 

Who wouldn't want to raise a glass to such an effort?

Cardinal Radcliffe: In age of AI, encourage young people to ask questions

We can inspire the imagination of young people in the age of artificial intelligence by inviting them to ask questions, be adventurous, and pay attention to life and others, said Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe on Friday, October 23, in an address at the International Congress for Pastoral Care in Schools and Universities.

The event was taking place at the Vatican on October 22-23 and was organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education. 

Cardinal Radcliffe was speaking during a session titled “Human Digital.”

Go on adventures

His speech focused on the question of engaging the imagination of young people in the digital age. He began by noting that tension is a fundamental part of life, including at the heart of Christianity, and can be lived fruitfully and joyfully.

He explained that young people, despite being an anxious generation due to coming of age in the digital era, long for both security and adventure. He noted that this “the desire for adventure” and the “risk of loving” is present in every human heart.

Cardinal Radcliffe described this tension by recalling as an example the adventure which Bilbo Baggins goes on in The Hobbit, leaving behind his safe home.

Citing St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, which stresses that nothing can separate us from the love of God, the Cardinal undelrined that we will inspire young people if we can offer them both a safe home and an invitation to lose their life. 

The importance of attention

“This paradoxical love – so safe and so dangerous– is founded on acute attention to the other,” Cardinal Radcliffe emphasized, pointing out that the digital world is instead “filled with distraction.”

In this context, attention thus becomes precious. Cardinal Radcliffe cited Simone Weil who said that the “rarest and purest form of generosity” is seeing others “as they relate to themselves and not to me.”

“This invites us to be unafraid to be the object of attention ourselves. We dare to be seen,” he underlined, mentioning the story of two Dominican sisters who went viral with a clip of them laughing together some months ago.

“Sr. Gemma Simmonds explained their enormous attraction thus: ‘The discovery that you were loved before anyone swiped, checked a profile, or decided whether you were worth their time, and this fact, quietly received rather than anxiously earned, changes what freedom feels like from the inside.’”

Ask questions

Cardinal Radcliffe explained that this tension is also present in the area of Church teaching. He noted that many young people are “drawn to Catholicism because they perceive the Church as faithful to the gospels and tradition” and they “long for certainty.”

However, he highlighted that faith is also “an intellectual adventure,” as we “embrace the teachings of the Church, but we are always only at the beginning of understanding them.”

“Certainty without the quest is fundamentalism; questioning without fidelity to the tradition would easily fall into relativism. So how do we touch the imagination of the young with beauty of truths that are both given, now and forever, and yet are always to be sought?” he asked.

He reflected that the truths of our faith are more than just facts: they are to be lived. Citing Pope Leo’s Magnifica Humanitas, St. Thomas Aquinas and others, Cardinal Radcliffe stressed that asking questions, wondering and thinking are essential aspects of human life and of developing one’s understanding, and cannot be replaced by AI.

“We touch the imagination of the young by leading them into the transformative beauty of understanding which leads to wonder, astonishment, awe,” he said, noting that God’s conversations with humanity in the Bible usually revolve around questions, which “invite us to become alive more deeply.”

Presence can’t be imitated

Cardinal Radcliffe spoke about the impact AI is having on work and employment, underscoring that we urgently need “a new vision of work, which is not about survival, but about being human.”

“This demands an attention to others that no AI can give,” he explained, saying “presence can be imitated” but not replicated. He cited examples such as social workers, a teacher who stays after class with a child, or a chaplain at a bedside.

“This attention is the opening of our being to what is other than ourselves. It is a wisdom that is transformative of who we are. It releases us from the detachment of the internet into the complexity and beauty of creation.”

Cardinal Radcliffe concluded by calling to inspire the imagination of young people by “releasing them from the abstractions of the digital continent” and remembering that in any field “we need a loving attention, patiently acquired, which draws us out of narcissism into the astonishment of creation and our Creator.”

Judge rejects Nashville diocese’s bid to throw out abuse cover-up suit

A Maryland man is suing the Diocese of Nashville, accusing the church of concealing its knowledge of a Tennessee priest’s conduct.

The plaintiff, now 65, alleges he was sexually abused as a child by Father Walter Emala in Baltimore. 

According to court documents, the plaintiff did not learn the Diocese of Nashville had prior knowledge of misconduct by Emala until the Maryland attorney general released a 2023 report on child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

On Thursday, Oct. 15, a federal judge denied the Diocese’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit under Tennessee’s statute of limitations. 

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw means a jury must resolve when the plaintiff knew or should have known about the Diocese’s alleged wrongdoing. It does not determine whether the Diocese is liable.

Internal records show church leadership was aware of allegations against Emala as early as 1959. 

That year, Nashville Bishop William Adrian wrote to Emala stating he could not entrust him with a leadership position due to his conduct, saying an episode with a boy caused “a scandal to many of your people.”

Allegations of misconduct with young boys continued until Diocese of Nashville Apostolic Administrator Joseph Durick wrote to Emala in 1968, ordering him to retire or leave the state.

Emala chose to move to Maryland. There, he began assisting at Our Lady Queen of Peace. 

According to court documents, there is no evidence that the Diocese of Nashville notified the Archdiocese of Baltimore of Emala’s conduct in Tennessee. 

By June 1975, multiple families approached parish priests with allegations regarding Emala’s behavior with young boys. He was terminated later that month by the Archbishop for “reasons of health.”

Unsealed correspondence between Baltimore and the Diocese of Memphis – which was carved out from the Nashville diocese in 1971 – shows detailed discussions of Emala’s mental health and alleged misconduct with young men, including middle school boys. 

Despite this, the Diocese of Memphis went on to recommend Emala to parish leaders, and he continued to face new accusations.

The Diocese of Nashville argued in court documents that it was never notified about Emala’s conduct in Maryland. 

Emala died in 2008. He has been publicly named on lists of priests credibly accused of child sexual abuse published by dioceses in Harrisburg, Baltimore, and Nashville.

“Genuine disputes remain regarding whether the Diocese withheld its internal records and historical concerns about Emala from public disclosure,” Crenshaw wrote.

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Nashville sent the following statement to News 2:

“This lawsuit follows actions alleged to have happened approximately 60 years ago. We will continue to respond to allegations set forth in this lawsuit through the appropriate legal channels.

The Diocese of Nashville encourages anyone who reasonably suspects that abuse has taken place to report it to civil authorities and asks that they also make a report to the diocesan safe environment coordinator.

The diocese has a victims assistance program open to victims of abuse no matter how long ago that abuse might have taken place. Information about the entire safe environment program is available at www.dioceseofnashville.com.”

-Diocese of Nashville

Diocese lawyers have also suggested the plaintiff only reported the abuse after seeing a television commercial for a personal injury law firm.

The plaintiff is asking the court for a trial by jury and financial recovery, including damages, for the permanent physical and mental harm caused by the alleged abuse.

Scandinavian Catholics debate how to handle new wave of conversions

As the northern winter approaches, Scandinavia’s Catholic Church is witnessing unprecedented growth, with more people turning to the faith in reaction to the region’s highly secularized culture.

“The Church is gaining strength thanks to an upsurge in Catholic conversions,” explained Ragnhild Aadland Høen, public affairs officer for Norway’s Council of Catholic Bishops.

“And where there was once anti-Catholic feeling, public prejudices are now much diminished. Young people are finding each other in parishes across the country, while others show a positive interest in ways we haven’t seen before,” she said.

The lay Catholic spoke as Bishop Fredrik Hansen of Oslo marked World Mission Sunday Oct. 18 by unveiling plans for his diocese’s first-ever synod on evangelical needs and challenges.

‘Something significant is clearly happening’

In an OSV News interview, Aadland Høen said many young people have discovered the faith after “terrifying experiences” of pagan and New Age practices, adding that Norway’s Church was now seeing a significant rise in confirmations and adult initiation courses.

Meanwhile, a prominent Danish Catholic told OSV News the country’s Church was also observing new signs of interest, but was also seeking to ensure converts properly understood Catholic teaching and were not merely making a “conservative, counter-cultural statement.”

“The growth isn’t as pronounced here as in Norway and Sweden,” said Nik Bredholt, parish council chairman at St. Ansgar’s Cathedral in Copenhagen.

“But many are discovering the Catholic Church via the internet and coming to our Masses in a genuine search for God,” Bredholt said. “Something significant is clearly happening.”

The Norwegian bishop was chosen by Pope Leo to preach at the Feb. 22-27 Lenten retreat, which reflected on the theme, “Illuminated by a Hidden Glory.” (OSV News photo/Simone Risoluti, Vatican Media)

Challenges in post-Reformation Scandinavia

Catholics suffered severe repression throughout post-Reformation Scandinavia, when predominant Lutheran churches gained official denomination status.

However, although Norway’s Constitution, amended in 2014, still declares the Lutheran Church to be “established,” it no longer requires government ministers to be practicing members and says other faith communities must be “supported on equal terms.”

Demands for similar modernizing reforms have been made where Lutheran state churches still hold sway.

Polish immigrants aid Church growth

With 406,000 members, including 419 priests and 349 nuns, according to 2025 data, the Catholic Church has seven dioceses in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, representing around 2.9% of Scandinavia’s combined population of 28 million.

Its reported rapid growth over the past decade, however, is buoyed by an influx of Catholics from Poland and other countries, and a succession of high-profile converts.

Cardinal Lars Anders Arborelius, a Discalced Carmelite and former Lutheran who became Sweden’s first cardinal in 2017, was voted “Swede of the Year” in 2021 by the country’s Fokus magazine and widely tipped as a candidate for pope in 2025.

In 2023, Norway’s Catholic novelist and playwright Jon Fosse, another convert from Lutheranism, won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

In her OSV News interview, Aadland Høen said the high cultural status of “celebrity converts,” like Fosse, had made the Church visible and interesting, while Scandinavia’s many ancient pilgrimage sites had also acted as a magnet for “seekers of religious truth.”

“This is one of the world’s most secular regions, and many have tried out the predominant worldview and found it empty,” said the Catholic spokeswoman, who converted from Lutheranism in her early 30s.

“It’s obvious to everyone that Catholics are in the Church because they really believe something — if they were driven by social convention they wouldn’t be there. They’re witnessing to the Christian faith in a powerful way, and this really strikes and impresses people.”

The commemoration of St. Olav’s conversion and baptism at the Basilica of San Carlo al Corso in Rome, Oct. 16, 2026. The Mass was celebrated by Bishop Emeritus of Oslo Bernt Eidsvig. St. Olav is Norway’s patron saint. (OSV News photo/Petter T. Stocke-Nicolaisen, courtesy of the Catholic Diocese of Oslo)

‘Potential to keep growing’

While maintaining their own national councils, Scandinavia’s eight Catholic bishops belong to a single Nordic Bishops’ Conference, with a Copenhagen-based secretariat tasked with coordinating pastoral work through “joint deliberations and decisions.”

It’s been headed since 2024 by the Trappist monk Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, another former Lutheran, who preached for the pope and Roman Curia at their February 2026 Lenten retreat.

Sister Anna Mirijam Kaschner, the Nordic conference’s veteran secretary-general, thinks Church leaders across Scandinavia have enough in common to function as a united entity.

At their fall plenary, the bishops appealed for greater support for the poor and homeless, as well as for Indigenous cultures, and urged Catholics to raise their voices against “rising populism” and the “hardening of public discourse.”

“Although we’re still a small presence here, we have the potential to keep growing — if we can retain those who’ve joined our Church and nurture their faith,” Sister Anna Mirijam, from the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood, told OSV News.

“The Church clearly offers a different set of values from those of today’s liberal, permissive society, and this is attracting people. With anti-Catholic feeling now largely consigned to the past, we’re also cooperating well with our Protestant neighbors. Incorporating so many different kinds of people, our Church looks set to play a special role in future.”

Bishop Fredrik Hansen of Oslo is seen in 2026 photo of the celebrations in honor or St. Sunniva, a patron saint in Norway, on the holy island of Selja, a key site for Norwegian Christianity. (OSV News photo/Ragnhild Aadland Høen, courtesy of the Catholic Diocese of Oslo)

Unexpected ally

The Catholic Church also found an unexpected ally in its growth in Scandinavia.

In August, the latest of six medieval Catholic churches was unearthed close to a one-time Norse settlement in Greenland, a vast territory belonging to the Church’s Copenhagen Diocese, geographically the world’s largest. 

It covers the entire country of Denmark, as well as Greenland and the Faroe Islands

While such discoveries have highlighted the Catholic Church’s ancient roots here, they’ve also strengthened calls for Catholics to be accorded equal status with Lutherans.

Under a 2020 law, Norway’s Catholic Church is eligible with other faith communities for state support, and now receives some $26 million annually.

‘A common history and identity’

While this has supplied a welcome boost to the Church’s outreach, Aadland Høen said Norway’s Church leaders are also encouraging Catholics to donate more directly, fearing the Church could lose public funding in future over its canonical practices and moral teachings.

Yet with many people looking to the Catholic faith after bitter “liberal experiences” of sexual permissiveness and family breakdown, Aadland Høen points out, it’s also wrong to assume today’s Scandinavians are naturally liberal in outlook.

“Our countries share a common history and identity — we see ourselves as brother-nations, and the Catholic Church is providing an institutional framework for furthering these links,” said the Council of Catholic Bishops officer, who is the Norway bishops’ liaison with government and public officials.

“While each nation brings its own gifts to the Church, we understand each other’s languages and have much in common through our culture, including a direct contact with the beauty of God’s creation which is visible throughout Scandinavia.”

Besides the Oslo Diocese’s announcement of its first synod, Sweden’s Catholic Church marked Mission Sunday by introducing a new nationwide course on “what it means to become a Catholic,” while a joint Oct. 25 pastoral letter from the Nordic Bishops’ Conference will outline plans for synodal teams across Scandinavia to discuss an expansion of Catholic ministry.

Why do some priests leave ministry? New study aims to find out

A new study has been launched by The Catholic University of America to explore why some priests choose to exit their ministry within a few years of ordination.

“There is a perception among some bishops and other Catholic leaders that there has been an increase in the number of men leaving priestly ministry in their early years,” said university official Sara Perla. “We wanted to find out whether that has any basis in the numbers, and if so, what might be contributing to it.”

The university’s research initiative, funded by the Knights of Columbus, will “deepen understanding of the factors behind why Catholic priests decide to leave public ministry,” said lead researcher Brandon Vaidyanathan, professor of sociology at the university and director of its Institutional Flourishing Lab.

Stephen Cranney, data scientist and lecturer in the university’s global studies department, is also collaborating on the study, along with sociologists Maureen Day, visiting research fellow at Villanova University; Joseph Davis of the University of Virginia; and Caitlin Fitzgerald, a sociology doctoral student at the University of Notre Dame with previous experience in conducting several large-scale studies.

The survey — the results for which will be released sometime in the fall of 2027 — will combine quantitative and qualitative methods, with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University compiling the data set.

That anonymized data will include priests ordained for U.S. dioceses over the past 20 years, from 2006 to 2025.’

A ‘one-by-one’ inquiry — for 9,000 names

Jesuit Father Thomas P. Gaunt, executive director of CARA, told OSV News that roughly 9,000 U.S. diocesan priests were ordained during that period — and tracking their current status to determine which have left the priesthood is a significant undertaking.

“We’ve got 9,000 names, and we have to figure out where every one of them is today,” he said.

Father Gaunt explained that his team is relying on open-source research, such as Google queries on individual priest names, in addition to checking against diocesan clergy lists and resources such as The Official Catholic Directory, an annual statistical overview of the U.S. Catholic Church endorsed for use by the nation’s bishops.

The open-source searches enable the CARA researchers to account for changes in priestly status — such as medical leave, death and temporary assignments elsewhere — that take place between directory and website updates, said Father Gaunt.

The process is a “one-by-one” inquiry, he said — and, he added, “the dilemma is being able to identify and then contact those who have left the priesthood.”

“When you make an inquiry with the diocese, very properly they come back and say, ‘It’s none of your business,'” due to “the privacy rights of the individual,” he explained.

Reasons for leaving? A ‘whole mix’

A “whole mix” of reasons are cited by diocesan priests who have left their ministry, said Father Gaunt.

“There were those who realized, ‘This is not God’s calling; it’s a mistake,’ and they leave. And in a sense, they’re happy campers,” he said. “There are others who are embittered by (their experience with) the bishop. And then there are others who say, ‘Well, this was a traumatic part of my life, and I don’t want to revisit it.’ They’re not going to go there because it’s too difficult or painful; it’s not a moral issue or anything else.”

At the same time, several dozen former diocesan priests have already opted to be part of the qualitative portion of the study, which will entail “semi-structured” interviews that are “between 60 and 90 minutes” in length, said Vaidyanathan.

“We will look at all the following areas: background and call, formation and ordination, time in ministry, the emergence of doubts and decision to leave, and life after ministry,” he said.

Robust response

Vaidyanathan clarified that the qualitative portion would focus on men ordained after 2000 and who “left public ministry with the knowledge of their bishop or religious superior within 10 years of ordination.”

The men are not required to have been formally laicized, he said.

In addition, he said, those who were removed from ministry by a canonical process, or who abandoned their ministry without the knowledge of their bishop or religious superior, are excluded from the study.

Perla noted the response to the study’s qualitative segment has been robust.

“Within a week, we received 61 responses to our call for participants,” she said. “This was more than we expected, and speaks to their willingness to share their experiences.”

‘For the benefit of the whole Church’

Perla and Vaidyanathan said they hoped the research initiative would accomplish a number of aims.

“When someone leaves, it is important to ask questions, and to learn from it, for the benefit of the whole Church,” said Perla.

Vaidyanathan agreed, saying the study would also help “bishops and other Catholic leaders to identify and respond to warning signs.”

He added, “It will also help the Church understand the experiences of these men in their own words.

Perla also pointed to the study’s potential to “enhance public appreciation for the priests who persevere in their vocations for the whole of life, when we honestly confront some of the challenges that they face.

“The faithful generally want to support their priests, and this study may provide us concrete ways to do so,” she said.

Chaldean synod backs new procedure for electing bishops

The Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church has agreed on a new procedure for electing bishops, which will give its members more time to study candidates before voting, Patriarch Paul III Nona said this week.

The Chaldean Catholic leader said in an interview published on the patriarchate’s website Oct. 23 that the bishops reached agreement on the new mechanism at an Oct. 16-19 assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome.

He said: “After lengthy discussions, we agreed on a specific procedure that will give synod members sufficient time to research and investigate the candidates and become better acquainted with them before electing them. This procedure will be implemented beginning with the next synod.”

Nona did not share further details about the new procedure or how it differs from the previous one.

The selection of suitably qualified candidates for the episcopate is a pressing issue for the Chaldean Catholic Church, one of the largest of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome.

The Chaldean Catholic Church was shaken by a major episcopal scandal in February when allegations of embezzlement and sexual misconduct emerged against Bishop Emanuel Shaleta, the head of the Eparchy of St. Peter the Apostle of San Diego. 

Shaleta faces more than a dozen charges of money laundering and embezzlement, and is expected to face a criminal trial.

Pope Leo XIV accepted Shaleta’s resignation March 10, on the same day as that of Cardinal Louis Raphaël I Sako, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church. Sako’s resignation paved the way for the April 12 election of Nona as his successor.

The Chaldean Church, which has approximately 600,000 members worldwide, has 23 ecclesiastical jurisdictions. Nine are in Iraq, four in Iran, two in the U.S., and one each in Australia, Canada, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.

Vacant sees or jurisdictions under patriarchal administration include the Eparchy of Alqosh in Iraq, three jurisdictions in Iran — the Archeparchy of Ahvaz, Eparchy of Salmas, and the Archeparchy of Urmia — and the Archeparchy of Amida in Diyarbakır, Turkey.

The list also includes the Eparchy of Cairo in Egypt, the Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle of Sydney in Australia, and the Eparchy of St. Peter the Apostle of San Diego in the U.S.

This indicates that at least a third of Chaldean Catholic jurisdictions lack a resident bishop, leaving a significant proportion of the world’s roughly 600,000 Chaldean Catholics without a local shepherd.

In a statement at the end of their meeting in Rome, the Chaldean Catholic bishops said they had discussed “the circumstances of our dioceses and their need for shepherds, along with matters concerning episcopal ministry, retirement, and the procedures for the selection of bishops.”

Nona said in his interview — published on the Chaldean Catholic Church’s official website — that the Synod of Bishops made decisions concerning the election of bishops for vacant sees. But he noted that the decisions could not be announced until they were confirmed by the Holy See.

“We discussed this matter with complete openness and frankness, seeking to determine what the synod considers best for each diocese,” Nona said.

The Synod of Bishops, together with the patriarch, is the supreme authority within the Chaldean Catholic Church, which is a sui iuris (self-governing) Church. 

After the Synod of Bishops elects a new bishop for a vacant see, the decision is presented to Rome for confirmation by the pope.

Nona said that among the most important decisions taken at the Rome assembly were the adoption of regulations governing synodal commissions and the election of a bishop to oversee each one.

The nine commissions cover areas such as family and youth, theology and catechesis, Chaldean heritage, diaspora issues, liturgy, and safeguarding.

Nona said the strengthening of the commissions was significant because the Synod of Bishops’ work will be based on reports prepared by the commissions.

“These must be submitted sufficiently in advance of the synod so that its members can review and study them thoroughly. During the sessions, matters requiring approval or further research and study will then be discussed,” he said.

“This procedure is, in fact, fundamental to the synodal process, ensuring that the work is not conducted on an individual basis or subject to personal preferences and interpretations.”

Nona also acknowledged in the interview that the growth of the Chaldean Catholic diaspora in recent decades, driven by upheavals in Iraq, had stretched pastoral resources.

“The widespread dispersion of the Chaldean faithful is accompanied by a shortage of priests and consecrated religious, both men and women, as well as the considerable pressure placed upon them. As a result, pastoral accompaniment has many shortcomings and difficulties,” he commented.

Nona said the shortage of priests was especially acute in Europe, which is served by an apostolic visitator rather than a resident eparchial bishop. 

There are substantial Chaldean Catholic communities in Sweden, Germany, France, and the U.K. The patriarch said that in Europe, “a single priest may be responsible for serving more than three centers located far apart from one another.”

After Nona was elected patriarch by the Chaldean Synod of Bishops in April, he requested and received ecclesiastical communion from the pope, in accordance with Church law.

Nona celebrated an Oct. 14 Mass of Ecclesiastical Communion in St. Peter’s Square with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the dean of the College of Cardinals, who was representing Leo XIV. The pope was unable to participate because he underwent surgery to remove lung cancer Oct. 13.

The Mass formally acknowledged the bond of communion between the Chaldean patriarch and the Bishop of Rome.

The following morning, Oct. 15, Nona celebrated the Chaldean Divine Liturgy at the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica.

In his homily, the patriarch said: “The Chaldean Church of the East, with her heritage, her liturgy, her wounds, and her hope, is called today to bear witness anew to this profound truth: communion does not mean simply being together, but becoming one in Christ, without anyone losing their distinct identity and without anyone being excluded from love.”

Denver archbishop responds to criticism over Trump prayer meeting: ‘I was being a Catholic priest’

Denver Archbishop James Golka this week defended his participation in a prayer event with U.S. President Donald Trump at the Oval Office, citing the gathering as an opportunity to publicly pray and evangelize the faith.

Golka, who was installed in the Denver Archdiocese in March after serving as the bishop of Colorado Springs for several years, led a prayer during an Oct. 22 meeting at the Oval Office between Trump and several U.S. bishops.

During the gathering the archbishop in part prayed for the Holy Spirit to “surround our country, to protect us against any influence of evil.”

The prayer event generated some backlash for what critics have argued was a politically motivated photo opportunity on the part of the White House. Golka this week said he “knew people might be upset” at the event and that it could be "use[d] for political purposes.”

“But as I prayed about it, I thought that this is what Catholics do. We pray for people. No matter whether we agree or disagree on anything, we always pray for our country and leaders,” he said in remarks to the Denver Catholic.

Golka said during the meeting he articulated Church teachings to the president. “As Catholics, we’re called to share our faith in season and out of season and to witness to the dignity of every human person,” he told the Denver Catholic.

He denied that the event, including video of the prayer shared on social media, constituted an “endorsement” of the president. “That was never my intention,” he said.

“The bishops of the United States teach that the Church cannot champion any candidate or party,” he said. “I hold to that. However you vote, you ultimately belong to Jesus who loves you infinitely more than you can imagine.”

The archbishop said he has received criticism from friends about the decision and that he has responded by telling them: “I was being a Catholic priest.”

He described himself as “heartbroken” at the anger over the event. He urged Christians to “look beyond the headlines, which are often crafted to provoke, towards the full truth.”

“I will keep praying for our president, our governor and everyone who serves in public office, regardless of their party or position on divisive topics,” he said.

The Archdiocese of Denver said after the event that praying for public leaders “is a long Catholic practice” that dates back to Apostolic Age.

Pope reminds canonists that their mission is to safeguard the communion of the Church

Pope Leo XIV recalled this Friday that Canon Law must be at the service of the supernatural good of the faithful and of the communion of the Church, and he insisted that ecclesial justice cannot be separated from truth and mercy. 

The Pontiff spoke these words during an audience in the Vatican Apostolic Palace with the participants in the International Congress organized on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Faculty of Canon Law of the Pontifical Gregorian University.

In his address, Leo XIV stressed that the study of Canon Law must not be limited to knowledge of the norms that regulate ecclesial life, but must form persons capable of understanding justice in the light of the legal tradition and the theological principles of the Church.

The Pope recalled the words of Saint John Paul II in the apostolic constitution Sacrae disciplinae leges, with which he promulgated the 1983 Code of Canon Law, to remind that the legal order of the Church has an essential function in safeguarding ecclesial communion. 

Likewise, he underlined that the teaching of this discipline must remain faithful to the Magisterium and at the service of the mission of the successor of Peter.

Audience with the participants in the International Congress on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Faculty of Canon Law of the Pontifical Gregorian University

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you.

Eminences, Excellencies, brothers and sisters:

I am very pleased to extend my greeting to all of you, Magnificent Rector, Father Dean, professors and lecturers, students and friends, who are taking part in the International Congress on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Faculty of Canon Law of the Pontifical Gregorian University.

On 16 August 1876, at the behest of Blessed Pius IX, the Congregation of Studies ordered the creation of your Faculty. It was the culmination of a long tradition of study and teaching of Canon Law that had accompanied the history of the Roman College and of the Society of Jesus. 

The date on which we celebrate the 150th anniversary represents, in fact, a fundamental stage in a history that began centuries ago, thanks to which the teaching of Canon Law had already developed its own scientific tradition, through the contribution of numerous figures of teachers who have brought prestige to the Faculty and have contributed significantly to the development of canonical science. 

They constitute a kind of unbroken thread that unites the generations and that still today transmits a valuable scientific and ecclesial heritage.

This Faculty, like the University of which it is a part, is an apostolic work of the Society of Jesus. It therefore shares in the spirituality that has its source in the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and which, among its characteristic features, includes what is summarized in the expression: Non multa, sed multum. That is to say, what matters is not to know many things, but to penetrate deeply into reality, to understand it and to interiorize it. 

Thus Saint Ignatius writes: “It is not much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul, but the feeling and tasting of things inwardly” (cf. Spiritual Exercises, Annotations, 2, 4).

It is not surprising, therefore, that this spiritual approach finds correspondence in the way your Faculty conceives the teaching of the Law of the Church. 

The purpose, in fact, is, in addition to knowing the norms suitable for regulating ecclesial life, to form persons who have the ecclesial sense of what is iustum, acquired through careful study of the sources, of the canonical tradition and of the theological principles that illuminate the norm. 

This is possible when the study of Canon Law is carried out in the light of the mystery of the Church, as the Second Vatican Council set forth in the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium.

If it is true, as Saint John Paul II wrote in the apostolic constitution Sacrae disciplinae leges (25 January 1983), with which he promulgated the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church, that “it is impossible to translate perfectly into ‘canonical’ language the image of the Church,” nevertheless, Canon Law must reflect it. 

It performs an essential service in safeguarding ecclesial communion and, therefore, is “extremely necessary for the Church” and has as its purpose “to create such an order in the ecclesial society that, assigning primacy to love, grace and charism, may make […] its organic development easier.” Indeed, the good of the person and that of the ecclesial community cannot exist independently of each other.

For this reason, in the Programme of Studies of your Faculty it is stated: “The Law of the Church must always tend to the supernatural good of each of the faithful and to the building up of ecclesial communion.” 

I exhort you to act faithfully in accordance with this purpose, that is, for the supernatural good of persons, which is realized by seeking true justice, never separated in the Church from truth and mercy. Saint Augustine expresses it with a formula dear to the Christian tradition: “Ordinata dilectio est iustitia” (“Justice is ordered love”).

I would also like to emphasize a characteristic of your identity that is also found in the Statutes: the Faculty “recognizes its special role in the service of the Petrine mission. Therefore, in its teaching it is faithful to the Magisterium of the Church and gives priority to the service that its professors render to the Apostolic See.” 

I therefore invite you to offer your students a living experience of the universal Church, which finds in the Bishop of Rome the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity (cf. Lumen gentium, 23).

The students — clerics, consecrated persons and laity — who come from so many parts of the world to pursue their studies in Rome must be able to experience, also through university life, that the Church is a universal communion; and, once they return to their particular Churches, to carry with them this experience as a richness to be shared, placing it at the service of their communities.

Dear friends, after 150 years, your Faculty can look to the future trusting in God and also in the great heritage received. 

Thus, following in the footsteps of those who have preceded you, you will be able to continue to bear those fruits of doctrine, of science and of holiness of life that the Lord and the Church expect of you.

May the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Speculum iustitiae (Mirror of Justice), and my apostolic blessing accompany you on this journey.

A Salesian bishop, a Capuchin, and an Argentine laywoman, among the six new venerables

Pope Leo XIV has authorized this Saturday, October 24, the promulgation of six decrees recognizing the heroic virtues of six Servants of God, including two missionary bishops, two diocesan priests, a Capuchin religious, and an Argentine laywoman linked to the Focolare Movement. 

The decision was communicated by the Holy See Press Office following the audience granted to Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

With the promulgation of these decrees, the six Servants of God are now recognized as Venerables. 

Their respective causes for beatification may advance once a miracle attributed to their intercession is recognized.

Two missionary bishops in Peru and India

Among the new Venerables is Friedrich Kaiser Depel (1903-1993), a German religious of the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He was the first prelate of the territorial prelature of Caravelí, in Peru, and titular bishop of Berrea. He also founded the Congregation of the Missionaries of Jesus Word and Victim. He was born in Dülmen, Germany, on May 24, 1903, and died in Lima on September 26, 1993.

The second bishop is Oreste Marengo (1906-1998), an Italian Salesian who served as apostolic administrator of Tura, in India, and titular bishop of Arsacal. He was born on August 29, 1906, in Diano d’Alba, Italy, and died on July 30, 1998, in Tura.

Two diocesan priests and a Capuchin religious

Leo XIV has also recognized the heroic virtues of Domenico Pogliani (1838-1921), an Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Holy Family Institute. He was born in Milan on December 18, 1838, and died in Arizzano on July 25, 1921.

Another of the new Venerables is Alessandro Vitetti (1915-1995), a diocesan priest born in Cirò, Italy, on October 12, 1915, and who died in Cariati on February 24, 1995.

The list also includes Daniel of San Giovanni Rotondo, whose birth name was Michele Natale. 

He was born on March 11, 1919, in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, and died in the same town on July 6, 1994. He was a professed religious of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin.

An Argentine laywoman of the Focolare Movement

The sixth person recognized is Margarita Bavosi (1941-1985), known as «Luminosa,» an Argentine consecrated laywoman belonging to the Work of Mary, also called the Focolare Movement.

She was born in Buenos Aires on September 19, 1941, and died in Albano Laziale, Italy, on March 7, 1985.

The six decrees promulgated this Saturday refer to the recognition of heroic virtues. For their beatification, it will generally be necessary for the Church to recognize a miracle attributed to the intercession of each of the new Venerables.

Pope Leo XIV encourages young people to discover marriage as a vocation to holiness

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged young Catholics to recognize marriage as a vocation to holiness, alongside the priesthood and consecrated life. 

During an audience held this Saturday, October 24, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, the Pontiff recalled that married life is part of God’s plan and asked ecclesial movements to accompany families in their evangelizing mission.

“Besides the priesthood and consecrated life, it is good to promote marriage as a call from God, a vocation to holiness that must be embraced with joy,” the Pope stated before participants in the Jesus Youth International Conference 2026, the international gathering of the Jesus Youth movement, which was born in India within the Charismatic Renewal.

Leo XIV also highlighted the importance of young people bearing witness to their faith, especially in countries where Christians are a minority. 

Likewise, he asked bishops and priests to accompany with a paternal gaze the different realities of the movement, overcoming difficulties that may arise from ritual differences and always seeking the spiritual good of the young people.

Below, we offer the full English translation of the address delivered by Leo XIV.

To the participants in the Jesus Youth International Conference 2026

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you!

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome to all of you.

I greet with joy all of you, delegates of the Jesus Youth groups present in many parts of the world, and I likewise greet the bishops, priests, and consecrated men and women who accompany you. This is a special gathering, because it is the first time that the Jesus Youth movement, with all its leaders and delegates, meets with the Successor of Peter.

You have gathered these days to reflect and discern how to continue your journey more effectively, forty years after the birth of your movement. I know that over the past three years you have carried out an extensive synodal-style consultation process. Now you wish the fruits of this reflection to be transformed into a new impetus, into a more generous welcome of the gifts that the Holy Spirit has granted you.

Your movement was born in the state of Kerala, in India, as part of the Charismatic Renewal, through the spontaneous initiative of young people themselves, inspired by a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus. Indeed, the starting point of every authentic renewal in the Church is the personal discovery of Jesus’ love. Thus, members of various prayer groups felt the need to unite in order to channel their enthusiasm and initiatives toward something that could sustain and guide the new spiritual and missionary impulse they had experienced.

For ten years now, dear friends, you have been recognized by the Holy See as an international association of the faithful. A time of ecclesial maturity has therefore begun for you, a time in which you are called to take on new challenges and bear new fruit. Do not lose your apostolic zeal, but cultivate it and bring it to new countries. Once again, all of this is possible only by keeping your gaze fixed on Jesus Christ. Many young people in your movement have done precisely this and, in this way, have become joyful and courageous witnesses of the faith. Some have done so in a particularly beautiful and moving way, such as Ajna George, who was sustained during the great trial of her illness by her love for Jesus present in the Eucharist.

Although many of you live in places where Christians are a minority, do not be afraid to bear witness to your friendship with Jesus. The hearts of young people long to discover the love of Christ. In a particular way, I encourage you to work with families to support the vocation to married life. Young people need to know that their lives are great and beautiful because they are part of God’s greater plan. Besides the priesthood and consecrated life, it is good to promote marriage as a call from God, a vocation to holiness that must be embraced with joy, with the certainty that God sustains with his grace all those whom he calls. This is precisely what you have experienced in Jesus Youth over these years: young Christians who marry, become parents, and discover their vocation to be missionary families, working together with ordained ministers to spread the Gospel.

Dear brothers and sisters, I exhort you to continue your journey by faithfully living the life of prayer and service to the poor that characterizes Jesus Youth. Strive to preserve your unity, especially amid the great diversity of social backgrounds, cultures, and languages that characterizes your movement. In this regard, I also ask priests and bishops to adopt a paternal and broad-minded perspective, overcoming difficulties that may arise from ritual differences, in order to seek above all the greater spiritual good of the young people. I hope that the Jesus Youth movement will always be distinguished by its youthful freshness and enthusiasm for the faith and that, in this way, it will enable many more to encounter the Lord and grow in the spiritual life.

Entrusting your efforts to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and Saint Francis of Assisi, I cordially impart to all of you my apostolic blessing.

Thank you.

Milan offers a Buddhism course as preparation for the 2027 WYD

The Archdiocese of Milan, led by Archbishop Mario Delpini, has added a five-lesson course on Buddhism to its preparation offerings for the World Youth Day (WYD) in Seoul 2027. 

The initiative will begin next Monday, October 26, and will run until November 23. 

The published program does not include any session dedicated to Jesus Christ, Catholic doctrine, or evangelization.

Under the title Sui passi del Buddha. Cammino, storia, pensiero e tradizioni del buddhismo (“In the Footsteps of the Buddha: Path, History, Thought, and Traditions of Buddhism”), the course is promoted by the “C. M. Martini” Center in collaboration with the University of Milano-Bicocca. 

The archdiocese’s youth ministry presents it explicitly as one of the diocesan initiatives to prepare for the international gathering of Catholic youth to be held next summer in South Korea.

Five Lessons on the Different Buddhist Traditions

The course is free and will be delivered online over five consecutive Mondays, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Registration was open from October 12 to 22.

The first session, scheduled for October 26, will be an introduction to the Buddha’s teachings and will be led by Emanuela Magno of the University of Padua. 

On November 2, Daniele Mazza of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions will address Theravāda Buddhism, while on November 9 Massimo Raveri of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice will explain the Mahāyāna tradition, known as the Great Vehicle.

The final two classes will focus on Zen Buddhism on November 16, with Buddhist monk Tetsugen Serra, and on Korean Buddhism on November 23, with Andrea Maria Nencini of the CAMNES Study Center in Florence.

According to the organizers, the goal is to provide a historical-critical introduction to the main Buddhist traditions, with special attention to intercultural and interreligious dialogue. 

Topics to be covered include the meaning of existence, suffering, the pursuit of happiness, coexistence, and the relationship between interiority and the world.

Participants who attend at least four sessions and pass a final test will receive a digital credential (open badge). 

Students at the University of Milano-Bicocca may also request academic credit recognition, in accordance with the conditions set by their university.

Criticism Over the Absence of References to Christ in the Program

The inclusion of this initiative in the preparation for WYD has drawn criticism for its announced content, which focuses exclusively on knowledge of Buddhism and its various schools.

The Italian newspaper La Verità reported on the course on October 21. 

Subsequently, LifeSiteNews published the criticisms of journalist Gianfranco Amato, who questioned the priority of offering formation on the Buddha to Catholic youth when, in his view, many of them barely know Jesus Christ.

Amato criticized the approach of the initiative and attributed it to a distorted view of the religious formation needs of young people.

The official program does not include classes on the Catholic faith or on the doctrinal differences between Christianity and Buddhism. 

The five sessions are devoted to presenting the history, thought, and traditions of this Eastern religion.

The proposal adds to other interreligious dialogue initiatives promoted within the Milan archdiocese, including a project for a monastic space shared by Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists presented in May of this year.

Preparation for WYD Seoul 2027

World Youth Day will be held in Seoul from August 3 to 8, 2027, and will bring together Catholic youth from around the world. 

The gathering will be guided by the words of Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospel of John: “Take courage: I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33).

On October 22, coinciding with the opening of registrations, Leo XIV addressed a video message to young people inviting them to take part in a pilgrimage of faith, friendship, and hope.

“This is not merely an invitation to discover a new city; it is a call to undertake a pilgrimage of faith, friendship, and hope,” the Pontiff stated, reminding them that WYD should be an opportunity to deepen their personal relationship with God.

The Pope also recalled the exhortation of Saint John Paul II: “Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ.”

The Archdiocese of Milan has included the Buddhism course among its preparation offerings for Seoul, alongside other pastoral, cultural, and organizational activities. 

The diocesan program also includes specifically Christian initiatives, while the cycle promoted by the “C. M. Martini” Center focuses on the study of Buddhist traditions.

The upcoming WYD will feature five patron saints announced by the local organizing committee, linked to the history of evangelization and Catholicism in Korea.

Pakistan confirms the death sentence of a Christian for blasphemy and acquits his brother after more than a decade of legal proceedings

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has upheld the death sentence of Qaiser Ayub, a 49-year-old Christian and father of three, accused of posting content deemed offensive to the Prophet Muhammad online. 

In the same ruling, issued on October 7, the court acquitted his brother Amoon Ayub, 46, finding insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction.

Both brothers had been imprisoned for over a decade in a case dating back to 2011. 

The Christian organization CLAAS-UK, which has followed the proceedings, welcomed Amoon’s acquittal but expressed concern over Qaiser’s situation, as he remains detained in Sahiwal prison and still faces the possibility of execution.

An accusation over online posts dating back to 2011

The case began after reports of allegedly blasphemous content published on a website linked to Qaiser Ayub. 

The accused maintains that he had closed the site in 2009 and that another person later reactivated it, retaining his name in the copyright information.

According to CLAAS-UK, the accusations arose following a dispute with acquaintances from his workplace. In response to threats and concerns for their safety, the two brothers temporarily left Pakistan and traveled to Singapore and Thailand before returning to the country.

The arrests took place in 2014, and on December 13, 2018, a court sentenced them to death. For security reasons, the trial was held inside Jhelum prison. In June 2022, the Lahore High Court upheld both sentences.

The case against Qaiser relied, among other elements, on digital evidence related to the website and information obtained from electronic devices. 

The Supreme Court found sufficient grounds to uphold his conviction, while in Amoon’s case, it concluded that his responsibility for publishing the content had not been proven.

Nasir Saeed, director of CLAAS-UK, welcomed the release of the younger brother but lamented the years both had spent in prison.

“We welcome the acquittal of Amoon Ayub after so many years of imprisonment, but our relief is overshadowed by the devastating news that his brother Qaiser continues to face the death penalty,” he stated.

Saeed noted that Qaiser has a wife and three children and stressed that no family should remain under the threat of execution for so many years. 

He also expressed hope that all available legal avenues would be pursued to save his life.

The defense turns to the United Nations to try to prevent the execution

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which is involved in the brothers’ defense through its Pakistani office, the Organization for Legal Aid (OLA), has submitted an urgent communication to the United Nations special procedures on human rights.

The organization considers the Supreme Court’s decision particularly serious and maintains that this is the first time Pakistan’s highest judicial body has upheld a death sentence for blasphemy.

The legal team has also announced that it is preparing a review petition before the Supreme Court itself in an attempt to overturn the sentence against Qaiser.

The case had already drawn the attention of the United Nations. 

In 2025, several independent human rights experts expressed concern over the sentences imposed on the Ayub brothers and the judicial safeguards in the proceedings.

In an official communication addressed to Pakistani authorities, the experts questioned the evaluation of the evidence and warned of the consequences of applying the death penalty in cases involving blasphemy accusations.

Blasphemy laws and the situation of Christians in Pakistan

Pakistan’s Penal Code provides for the death penalty for insulting the Prophet Muhammad under Article 295-C. 

These provisions have led to numerous proceedings against members of religious minorities, especially Christians, Hindus, and Ahmadis, although they also affect Muslim citizens.

Religious freedom advocacy groups denounce that blasphemy accusations can be used to settle personal disputes, intimidate certain communities, or provoke retaliation against the accused, even before courts examine the evidence.

Among recent cases is that of Shagufta Kiran, a Christian woman sentenced to death in September 2024 for a WhatsApp message deemed blasphemous.

CLAAS-UK has called for greater safeguards against false accusations, protection for the accused and their lawyers, and measures to prevent threats or external pressures from interfering in judicial proceedings.

While Amoon Ayub faces the return to freedom after years of imprisonment, his brother Qaiser remains under a death sentence in Sahiwal prison. His lawyers are preparing new legal actions and have requested United Nations intervention to try to prevent his execution.

Cathedral of Toledo will open its Holy Door this Sunday to celebrate the first Jubilee Year in its history

The Primate Cathedral of Toledo will solemnly open its Holy Door this Sunday, October 25, at 6:00 p.m., to mark the beginning of the first Jubilee Year in its history, granted by Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of the eighth centenary of the temple. 

The Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain, Monsignor Francisco Cerro Chaves, will preside over the opening ceremony and the subsequent Eucharistic celebration, coinciding with the feast of the Dedication of the Cathedral.

According to the Archdiocese of Toledo, the celebration will begin in the Town Hall square and will mark the start of twelve months of pilgrimages, liturgical celebrations, and gatherings that will continue until October 25, 2027. 

The papal concession was publicly proclaimed last August 15, the feast of the Virgin of the Sagrario, patroness of Toledo.

Eight Hundred Years of the Primate Cathedral

The Holy Year commemorates the eight centuries that have passed since the laying of the first stone of the current Gothic cathedral on August 14, 1226, by Archbishop Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada and King Ferdinand III the Saint.

This is the first time that the Toledan temple celebrates its own jubilee. 

Archbishop Francisco Cerro has highlighted the spiritual significance of this concession, which will allow the faithful to make a pilgrimage to the Primate Cathedral and obtain the plenary indulgence under the conditions established by the Church.

In his pastoral letter on the occasion of the beginning of the jubilee, the prelate recalled that crossing the Holy Door means much more than performing an external gesture: “Crossing the Holy Door is crossing an external threshold that provokes an interior movement.”

Cerro Chaves has pointed out three fundamental dimensions of this Holy Year: recovering the grateful memory of the faith transmitted through generations, fostering personal conversion, and strengthening the life of the diocesan Church.

Jubilee Masses and Plenary Indulgence

During the Jubilee Year, the Cathedral will celebrate a daily Mass especially intended for pilgrims. 

From Monday to Saturday it will take place at 11:00 a.m., while on Sundays it will be celebrated at 12:00 p.m. 

The Holy Door, identified with the Door of Kings, will open half an hour before each celebration.

The faithful will be able to follow a spiritual itinerary inside the temple that will include the Chapel of the Descent, the Baptismal Chapel, the Chapel of Saint Peter, and the Chapel of the Virgin of the Sagrario. 

The itinerary will be dedicated to prayer, the renewal of baptismal promises, reconciliation, and participation in the Eucharist.

To obtain the plenary indulgence, pilgrims must fulfill the usual conditions established by the Church: sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion, prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father, and the spiritual dispositions required to receive this grace.

The jubilee concession also includes those who cannot travel to Toledo due to illness, advanced age, or other serious cause, allowing them to join the celebrations spiritually.

A Year of Pilgrimages and Works of Charity

The jubilee program will include days dedicated to families, priests, consecrated persons, the sick, baptized children, grandparents, and artists, among other groups.

Alongside the religious celebrations, the Cathedral Chapter will promote various charitable initiatives, including support for the Hogar 2000 of Cáritas Diocesana de Toledo, which assists people in vulnerable situations.

The opening of the Holy Door constitutes one of the central events of the eighth centenary of the Primate Cathedral, a commemoration that has also included cultural and heritage activities. 

This Saturday, October 24, the presentation of a commemorative stamp issued by the Vatican is scheduled, in an event presided over by the Archbishop of Toledo with the participation of Sister Raffaella Petrini, president of the Governorate of the Vatican City State.

Angelicum awards an honorary doctorate to Patriarch Bartholomew I for his "ecumenical work"

The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, known as the Angelicum, awarded the honorary doctorate in Theology on Friday, October 23, to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, in recognition of his work in the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches.

The ceremony took place during the inauguration of the 2026-2027 academic year, on a day dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Council of Crete, held in 2016. 

Among those in attendance were the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti.

Koch highlights his ecumenical trajectory

Cardinal Kurt Koch, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, delivered the laudatio for the Patriarch, in which he highlighted his contribution to the development of relations between Rome and Constantinople.

During his speech, Koch recalled that Bartholomew has signed more joint declarations with the Roman pontiffs than any other Ecumenical Patriarch in history.

The cardinal pointed out three main areas of his activity: ecclesiological reflection on synodality, the call for eco-theology, and theological dialogue between the Churches.

He also highlighted his support for the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which in recent years has worked on issues related to synodality and the exercise of authority in the Church.

The Council of Crete, ten years later

The academic day was dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, held on the Greek island of Crete in June 2016.

Bartholomew played a prominent role in convening that assembly, the result of a long process of preparation among the various Orthodox Churches. 

However, the meeting was not attended by all the autocephalous Churches: the Patriarchates of Russia, Antioch, Bulgaria, and Georgia decided not to participate.

In his speech after receiving the doctorate, entitled “Conciliarity and Communion in the Church,” the Patriarch presented the Council as the culmination of more than a century of preparation, prayer, and hope.

Bartholomew acknowledged the absence of some Orthodox Churches, although he maintained that the importance of the assembly should not be judged solely by the number of participants or its immediate results.

The Patriarch insisted that synodality constitutes an essential element of the life of the Church and pointed out that many of the issues addressed in Crete remain unresolved ten years later.

He also referred to the interest of the Catholic Church in synodality during the pontificates of Francis and Leo XIV, and its relationship with theological dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox.

The dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox

Cardinal Koch also highlighted Bartholomew’s concern for the protection of creation and his proposal to recover Christian sobriety and asceticism in the face of consumerism.

In this regard, he recalled that the Patriarch has linked the destruction of nature with man’s moral responsibility before God.

For his part, Bartholomew devoted part of his speech to the relationship between primacy and synodality, one of the main issues in the dialogue between Rome and the Orthodox Churches.

The Patriarch maintained that both realities must be understood together and warned that a primacy separated from synodality runs the risk of becoming a centralized authority, while a synodality without primacy may favor fragmentation.

In this context, he mentioned the Ravenna documents of 2007 and Chieti of 2016, drawn up within the framework of international theological dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox.

The academic recognition was presented by the Rector of the Angelicum, the Dominican Thomas Joseph White.

Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople since 1991, is on a visit to Italy, where he is also scheduled to travel to Assisi and Loreto.

The doctorate recognizes his work in relations between Catholics and Orthodox, which in recent decades have advanced through joint declarations, meetings, and theological work. 

However, the two Churches have not yet restored full communion, and among the main outstanding issues remains the exercise of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome and its relationship with the synodality of the Eastern Churches.

Zuppi presents eleven cards on Islam for the Religion class

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), presented on Wednesday, October 21, the «Cards to Learn about Islam,» a collection of eleven documents prepared jointly by Catholic and Muslim specialists for use in schools, especially in Catholic Religious Education classes. 

The initiative has drawn criticism over the content of the materials and the role other religions should play in a confessional subject.

The event took place at the Palazzo Borromeo, headquarters of the Italian Embassy to the Holy See, and was organized by the embassy itself, the CEI, and the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI). 

Representatives from various Islamic organizations in Italy participated, along with leaders from the ecclesiastical bodies involved in the project.

Eleven cards drafted jointly by Christians and Muslims

The collection published by the CEI and the PISAI covers the history of Islam, its beliefs, the Qur’an, the figure of Muhammad, religious practices, the Muslim community, and Islamic spirituality. 

It also includes a section on the convergences and divergences between Christianity and Islam, another dedicated to the Muslim presence in Italy, and a final one on interreligious dialogue.

The materials were prepared by a team made up of representatives from both religions. 

During the presentation, Fr. Valentino Cottini, former dean of the PISAI, explained that the working group was composed equally of Christians and Muslims, who discussed their differences until reaching a shared text.

The initiative has involved three bodies of the Italian Episcopal Conference: the National Office for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue, the National Office for Education, Schools, and Universities, and the National Service for Catholic Religious Education, in addition to the PISAI.

The cards are not new. They were first presented on November 10, 2025, at the PISAI and have since been available in Italian and English. 

The CEI has also made them available to authors of Catholic Religious Education textbooks and those responsible for teacher training.

The project represents a second stage of an initiative that had already produced similar materials on Judaism.

Zuppi: «The future is dialogue»

During his speech, Zuppi defended the need to know Islam in order to overcome prejudices and promote coexistence. 

The president of the CEI stated that in Italy there is «a notable ignorance» about this religion and maintained that the work carried out by Christians and Muslims allows for shared knowledge.

For the cardinal, the cards represent «the exact opposite of the clash of civilizations.» He also criticized certain press headlines, which he described as «dangerous, dangerous for Islamophobia.»

«The future is dialogue,» Zuppi affirmed, adding that knowing other religions does not mean renouncing Italy’s Christian roots, but rather can help to understand them better.

The Archbishop of Bologna also recalled his experience as a Catholic Religious Education teacher and noted that one of the guidelines he received at the time was that the subject should not become catechesis. 

In this regard, he referred to a recent CEI note that presents religious education as a space for culture and dialogue.

The cardinal linked the publication of these materials to the spirit of the interreligious meeting in Assisi convened by John Paul II in 1986, whose fortieth anniversary is being commemorated this year. He also called for an unequivocal condemnation of violence accompanied by an educational proposal.

The meeting was addressed by the Italian Ambassador to the Holy See, Francesco Di Nitto; the Auxiliary Bishop of Naples, Gaetano Castello; and the Dean of the PISAI, Wasim Salman. Representatives from the Union of Islamic Communities of Italy (UCOII), the Italian Islamic Religious Community (CoReIs), the Italian Islamic Confederation, and the Tevere Institute also participated.

Criticism of the content of the cards and the identity of Catholic education

The presentation of the cards has provoked criticism over the approach of their contents and, especially, their intended audience: Catholic Religious Education classes. 

The issue is not so much that students learn about other religions, which is already part of religious education, but rather the place that the Catholic faith occupies when materials intended for its teachers are prepared through a text agreed upon with representatives of another confession.

Riccardo Cascioli, director of La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, has questioned the image of Islam presented in the documents, which he considers overly favorable and insufficiently attentive to realities such as religious fundamentalism and the situation of Christians in numerous Muslim-majority countries. 

He has also warned of the risk that Catholic Religious Education could end up becoming a general course on different religions, gradually losing its own character.

In Italy, Catholic Religious Education in public schools is regulated by agreements between the State and the Church. 

Its content is not limited to catechesis, but neither is it identified with a comparative religion subject: it retains an identity linked to knowledge of Catholic doctrine and tradition. 

Hence the objections to the procedure chosen to prepare these materials and to the criteria used to reach a shared text between Christians and Muslims.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò also criticized the initiative on the social network X. «Zuppi’s Church no longer evangelizes. 

It apologizes for existing. It asks permission,» he wrote, contrasting the presentation of the cards on Islam with the situation of Italian parishes and the decline in religious participation.

This is not the first time that Zuppi’s gestures of rapprochement with Islam have sparked controversy. 

In March, the president of the CEI participated in an iftar dinner in Bologna, while also expressing concern about the lack of children enrolled in catechesis in several parishes in the city center.