Archdiocese of Paderborn reduces number of parishes to 21

The Archdiocese of Paderborn brings together its 603 parishes to 21 pastoral care rooms. 

The archdiocese announced this on Friday. 

The mergers will start in 2028. 

Management, finance and personnel are being reorganized.

The reason for the structural reform is, among other things, the decline in church members, priests and volunteers. 

"In addition, the abuse scandal in particular has led to a massive loss of trust in the institution of the Church," according to the archdiocese. Even now, reliable pastoral care can no longer be ensured everywhere.

Church life continues in communities

The Archdiocese plans that the previous deans – with two exceptions – will become the future 21 pastoral rooms. Each pastoral room usually corresponds to a parish. 

The new units will be led by teams of three, to whom at least one priest must belong, according to church law. In addition to the management team, there should be a full-time position for commitment promotion in every pastoral care room.

The Archdiocese emphasized that the pastoral care area is not the level on which all church life will take place in the future. 

"The church continues to live where people pray, celebrate worship, accompany each other, help, alleviate hardship, experience community and take responsibility: in communities, churches, facilities, groups and initiatives," said the two Vicar General Michael Bredeck and Thomas Dornseifer.

Together with the parishes, the diocese administration will also be restructured. 

The reforms are the result of an approximately one-year consultation process, in which church members and various committees were also involved. 

The Archdiocese of Paderborn has 1.25 million Catholics.

Resignation attack on cardinal ends with reprimand for priest

With a letter in sharp tone, a Polish priest called on the Krakow Archbishop Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś to resign. 

The cardinal’s openness to queer Catholics, migrants and lay communion helpers is unacceptable to the clergyman. 

Ryś described it as a "collaborator of rainbow Catholics." 

As Polish media reported on Thursday, the eastern Polish diocese of Drohiczyn now distanced itself from the remarks of its diocesan priest. The clergyman had violated the principles of the decree of the Polish Bishops’ Conference on the appearance of clerics and religious in the media with his letter. 

During a conversation with the Bishop of Drohiczyn, he was therefore reprimanded. 

At the same time, the bishop prohibited him from publishing similar content in the future.

The Polish Bishops’ Conference had issued regulations for media appearances and the use of social media by clergy and lay people in 2023. 

The aim of the regulations is to properly pass on the message of the Gospel in the means of social communication. 

Clerics, religious and lay people in church offices are obliged to appear in media and social networks in accordance with the teaching of the church, prudent and not polarizing.

The clergyman is Beniamin Sęktas. 

According to reports, the cleric is not only active in the pastoral care of his diocese of Drohiczyn, but is also dedicated to literature. He publishes poems and has already published a book of poetry. 

Sęktas, who was ordained a priest in 2020, is also said to have worked journalistically in recent years. 

His articles appear on conservative internet portals and often contain critical positions towards some Polish bishops. 

He had also criticized the document "Fiducia supplicans" approved by Pope Francis in 2023 that allows the blessings of homosexuals outside the liturgy. 

The clergyman repeatedly described this practice as "harmful".

Women offer our Church a way out of crisis (Opinion)

For Roman Catholics, it’s particularly gratifying that the first official visit of the newly enthroned Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, was to Rome, when on Monday, April 27 last she visited Pope Leo as they met for the first time and prayed together in the Urban VIII Chapel.

Leo shared his joy in welcoming Archbishop Mullally during the Easter season as well as sharing his Easter-tide peace-greeting of Christ to all Christians. 

"Among Christians," he added, "divisions weaken our ability to effectively bear Christ’s peace to the world."

It would, he said, be "a scandal if we did not continue to work towards overcoming our differences, no matter how intractable they may appear".

The visit represents once again how much in common the two world-wide churches share and the promise involved in moving forward together recognising, on the one hand, the progress made in the movement towards unity since the Second Vatican Council (1962-5) and, on the other, the difficult challenges on the road ahead.

There was too the not inconsiderable impact of the character of the meeting between the 267th pope and the first woman archbishop of Canterbury. 

In the visit of Sarah Mullally, there was at once a sense of promise when on the road to unity a convergence develops as the two roads meet and with it as well a sense of divergence when progress is uneven as one church moves forward and the other fails to keep pace. 

The gap narrows and the gap widens, one step in and one step out again, as the dance towards church unity continues.

A picture can paint a thousand words and in the photographs of the visit, the difficulty of that bitter-sweet reality is clear for all to see. 

There was no doubting how far the road to be travelled still extends and yet how difficult it is to sustain the dream of church unity.

There was too a definitive symbolism in a male pope clad as always in the uniform ‘uniform’ of past centuries, casting an aura of an immutable and unwavering loyalty to static traditions and a woman archbishop of Canterbury deferring to past centuries but open to possibilities represented not least by her gender. 

Respective histories were resolute but wary of impermanence, with the question that hovered over the proceedings as always: where do we go from here?

Sixty years ago, back in 1966, the year after the Second Vatican Council, when anything or almost everything seemed possible, Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey met to begin the softening process as the historic division that kept the dream of unity alive seemed for so long so impervious to real movement. 

Possibilities of co-operation were explored; difficult even intransigent theological divisions were given time and space; and real possibilities for hope hovered on the horizons of history, moderated by the interest (and sometimes) lack of interest of the heads of the two churches.

There is a growing sense that the agendas and the issues that underpin ecumenical dialogue have narrowed - towards safer issues like climate change rather than a shared eucharist, or towards a safer shared agenda like war, peace and migration rather than seeking a unified response to church unity.

There’s a sense too of giving more attention than is warranted to the limited agenda of denominational fixations than to tackling the core issues including the very scandal (as Leo put it) of disunity - the Anglican Church nervous of being overwhelmed by numbers, the Roman Catholic Church unnerved by possibilities of schism or whatever. 

And again the age-old question hanging like a dead weight over progress towards church unity remains: have the leaders and the church faithful they represent the courage to dream the dream of church unity? 

Or will ecumenism continue to remain little more than respectful PR meetings on the sidelines of history filled with limited intentions on the road to nowhere? 

More particularly, apart from polite meaningless words what status (and focus) will Pope Leo and Archbishop Sarah bring to serious ecumenical dialogue?

The greater challenge, it seems, is to the Catholic Church, not least with the gender focus given by the person of the Archbishop of Canterbury, setting in due perspective the dismal failures of the Catholic Church to respond to the promise and purpose available to our church by the presence, ability and expertise of committed women.

The wonder is not that so many women have walked away but that so many are still grimly hanging to their membership of the Church even though they are being marginalised, patronised and systematically and embarrassingly excluded from roles commensurate to their gifts.

What is it about women, a friend of mine asked recently, that the Catholic Church doesn’t get? 

On the one hand, there are effectively no vocations anymore to priesthood and the religious life while statistics indicate that within little more than a decade there will be no priests and no Mass and no Eucharist? 

And no discussion about it by those who are responsible for the availability of priests and Masses and the Eucharist.

On the other hand, there chatting to Pope Leo is Sarah Mullally, a married woman, and at present the Archbishop of Canterbury no less. 

And the sky hasn’t fallen in and the Church of Ireland goes on about its business ordaining women to fill whatever gap emerges in every available parish.

Meanwhile in the Catholic Church, seminaries are either almost empty or completely closed and we’re importing priests from India, Africa and western Europe imagining that a sticking-plaster solution can somehow fill the ever-expanding gap. 

And that, as surely as night follows day, as things stand, in little over a decade we will experience the virtual disappearance of the last priests in Ireland. 

Again it posits the inevitable questions: who’s in charge of the store? 

Why is this crisis not up for discussion? 

And can they not see that the present redundant dispensation, condemning the gifts of Catholic women to a fate somewhere between condescension and misogyny, is in present circumstances a counsel of despair.

We can be better than this.

While not every Catholic and every Protestant will be excited by the meeting, there is no doubting its symbolic nature in the troubled history of the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches over the last five hundred years.

Vatican orders Baton Rouge bishop investigation

The Vatican has ordered an investigation in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, over allegations that the Bishop Michael Duca discouraged a whistleblower from calling the police, after a local priest allegedly admitted to sexual contact with minors.

The priest denies the allegation against him, while the Baton Rouge diocese has not responded to questions about the case.

News of the Vos estis investigation comes after The Pillar reported last week that the Vatican had not yet responded to a whistleblower report filed more than two months ago, despite canonical norms requiring Vatican action within 30 days of receiving a complaint. 

Baton Rogue Catholic Luke Zumo told The Pillar that he was informed this week that the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops has authorized New Orleans’ Archbishop James Checchio to conduct an investigation into a report Zumo filed in mid-February with the Catholic Bishop Abuse Reporting Service, a third-party system established by the U.S. bishops’ conference to receive allegations of episcopal misconduct or neglect in office.

In his report, Zumo alleged that Bishop Michael Duca and Baton Rouge vicar general Fr. Jamin David failed to inform the Office of Child and Youth Protection and diocesan review board of a 2025 allegation that a priest serving in the diocese had attempted to sexually coerce a parishioner, and had admitted to sexual contact with minors.

Vos estis lux mundi, the 2021 procedural norms published by Pope Francis on the subject of investigating bishops, indicates that after receiving such a report, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops is to “proceed without delay, and in any case within thirty days from the receipt of the first report by the Pontifical Representative or the request for the assignment by the Metropolitan, provid[e] the appropriate instructions on how to proceed in the specific case.”

But while Zumo filed the report in mid-February, he was informed in late April by officials in the Archdiocese of New Orleans that they had not received instructions on how to proceed with the case. Soon after a May 1 report from The Pillar on the Vatican’s delayed action in the case, Zumo was told that Checchio had been authorized to conduct an investigation.

Zumo told The Pillar that Checchio was told he should complete the investigation within 50 days, and send a report no later than 15 days after that.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has not responded to requests for additional information from The Pillar.

The situation began in September 2025. In that month, an adult Catholic male in the Baton Rouge diocese alleges that Fr. Charbel Jamhoury — a Lebanese Maronite priest who was then pastor of St. Isidore the Farmer parish in Baker, Louisiana — attempted to coerce him into a sexual relationship, reportedly holding the man’s hand, recounting a history of his own sexual activity, touching the man’s lips, kissing his fingers, urging the man to massage him, and proposing sexual contact.

The man alleges that at the same time, Jamhoury disclosed to him prior possible acts of child sexual abuse — specifically, oral sex with minors, allegedly recounting his preference for such activity in graphic detail.

Jamhoury has told The Pillar that he “absolutely did not” attempt to initiate sexual contact with the man, and did not recount to the man a history of oral sex with minors. Instead, the priest said that the man “was abusing me,” though he declined to elaborate on the nature of that abuse.

In October 2025, the man reported the alleged inappropriate conduct — and the alleged admission of sexual contact with minors — to the Baton Rouge diocese.

While diocesan officials reportedly conducted a preliminary investigation, the priest was not removed from office during it. The diocesan review board was not contacted, nor was the diocesan safeguarding office.

And Zumo, a frequent volunteer in the diocese, told The Pillar that in December 2025, Duca discouraged him from contacting the police, despite the priest’s alleged admission of sexual contact with minors.

While the diocese sent Jamhoury for a psychological evaluation, and removed him in February from his role as pastor, Zumo’s report alleges that the process undertaken in the case did not confirm to diocesan safe environment policies, and that it was wrong for Duca to discourage him from contacting the police.

Further, he argues, diocesan statements on the matter concealed the fact that the priest allegedly admitted to sexual contact with minors. That, he said, put minors at risk, and kept families in the dark.

For its part, the diocese of Baton Rouge told The Pillar by email that in response to a report of “serious boundary violations,” and “after extensive conversation with all parties involved and an investigation which also included interviews by law enforcement, the diocesan investigation, and the full health assessment of Father Jamhoury, Bishop Duca determined that Father Charbel be removed from his office as Pastor of St. Isidore effective immediately, and this was accomplished in early February.”

Leo XIV in Pompeii: The Rosary and Spiritual Life in the Face of the Crisis of Faith and Wars

Pope Leo XIV presided this Friday in Pompeii over the traditional celebration of the Supplication to the Virgin of the Rosary in a day loaded with spiritual symbolism and marked by a strong message about the need to recover prayer, the Eucharist, and interior life amid a world increasingly battered by wars, secularization, and the loss of faith.

The visit also coincided with the first anniversary of his election as Successor of Peter, a circumstance that the Pontiff himself wished to emphasize during the homily. 

“Exactly one year ago, the ministry of Peter was entrusted to me precisely on the day of the Supplication to the Virgin of Pompeii,” recalled Leo XIV, thus linking the beginning of his pontificate to the protection of the Virgin of the Rosary.

Before the Mass, the Pope venerated the relics of Saint Bartolo Longo - the founder of the Sanctuary and recently canonized by him - and greeted priests, bishops, the sick, and people with disabilities present at the event.

The Rosary as a response to a society that is losing faith

The homily was deeply focused on the value of the Rosary, presented by the Pope as a prayer capable of restoring to contemporary man the sense of God and salvation.

Leo XIV recalled the words spoken by Saint John Paul II in Pompeii more than twenty years ago, when he already warned of a society “that moves away from Christian values and even loses its memory.” 

The Pontiff took up that idea to describe a crisis that he considers even more evident today.

In the face of that scenario, the Pope defended the Rosary not as a secondary or sentimental devotion, but as an authentic synthesis of the Gospel and Christian life. Citing Bartolo Longo and Saint John Paul II, he insisted that this prayer possesses “a Christological and Eucharistic heart” and continually leads the believer toward Christ.

At a time when much of Catholic pastoral care seems to have relegated traditional forms of popular piety, the words of Leo XIV sounded like an explicit vindication of classical Marian spirituality and the centrality of contemplation in the life of the Church.

The Eucharist and supernatural life at the center

The Pontiff also wished to emphasize that true Christian renewal does not arise primarily from human strategies or social projects, but from grace and supernatural life.

“The world will not be saved by any earthly power,” he affirmed during one of the strongest moments of the homily, insisting that only “the divine power of love” can truly transform history.

The phrase did not go unnoticed in an international context marked by wars in the Middle East, Ukraine, and other regions of the world, as well as by the growing sense of global instability.

Leo XIV once again asked for prayers for peace and implicitly criticized an international logic dominated by the arms trade and power interests. However, unlike other more diplomatic speeches habitual in the Vatican, the Pope placed the problem above all on the spiritual plane: peace is born first in the heart of man reconciled with God.

That deeply supernatural tone ran through the entire celebration. The insistence on the Eucharist, the contemplation of the mysteries of Christ, and the centrality of grace marked a homily very different from the predominantly sociological language that has characterized numerous ecclesial discourses in recent years.

Bartolo Longo and the union between faith and charity

The figure of Saint Bartolo Longo also occupied a central place during the day. Leo XIV recalled how the founder of Pompeii transformed a land marked by poverty and abandonment through an inseparable combination of prayer, Marian devotion, and concrete charity toward the most needy.

The Pope especially highlighted the attention that Bartolo Longo devoted to orphans and children of prisoners, underscoring that authentic Christian charity always arises from faith and union with Christ.

The message seemed to respond indirectly to one of the tensions present today within the Church: the risk of reducing Christianity to a mere humanitarian discourse detached from its supernatural dimension.

For Leo XIV, charity cannot be separated from prayer or from the truth of the Gospel. That is why he insisted that the Rosary is not a practice of the past, but a living source of spiritual—and also social—transformation.

Pompeii as a symbol of the new pontificate

The choice of Pompeii for one of the first major celebrations of the pontificate also confirms some of the lines that are beginning to define Leo XIV: a recovery of classical spiritual language, a special sensitivity toward popular religiosity, and an effort to restore centrality to prayer and the sacraments.

From Pompeii, Leo XIV thus launched a message that goes beyond a simple Marian devotion: he recalled that the crisis of the modern world will not be resolved solely with structures, consensuses, or human projects, but by returning to Christ through prayer, conversion, and a life of grace.

Argüello and the Monks of the Valley: a contradiction that cannot be sustained any longer

When two ecclesiastical voices of maximum authority describe the same fact in an incompatible way, the normal - reasonable - thing is to expect a clarification. When that clarification does not arrive, the normal thing is to start asking why. 

That is exactly what has been happening for weeks in the matter of the Valley of the Fallen, where the public position of the Benedictine community and that of the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference do not fit. They do not fit at all.

The issue, at bottom, is of an almost uncomfortable simplicity: does the winning project of the resignification contest affect the interior of the Basilica of the Holy Cross or not? For the monks who guard the temple, yes, and gravely so. For Monsignor Luis Argüello, no. The project, he maintains, respects the basilica. The two things cannot both be true at the same time. And when one opens the plans published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda itself, the doubt disappears: the reason is not on the more reassuring side of the narrative.

What the monks wrote:

On Tuesday, April 28, the Abbey of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen published a Third in ABC. It was not an improvised comment, nor testimony heard from third parties, or an anonymous leak. It was a signed and deliberate text, aware of its scope. The gravity of the matter demanded precisely that: public exposition and responsibility for what was said, regardless of third-party opinions on its content.

In that text, the representative of the Abbey argued from various angles, some of which are nuanced from a philosophical point of view. However, it recalled something so elementary that it is almost uncomfortable to have to explain it again. For the Catholic Church, a temple is not a fragmentable building to the taste of the political juncture. It is not an adaptable container. It is the house of God. And its sacrality wrote»is not limited to the altar nor to the moment of the liturgical celebration par excellence—the Holy Mass, but extends to the entirety of the floor plan and the spaces of the temple - door, atrium, vestibule, naves, altar, dome, chapels and crypts.»

The ecclesiastical problem - warned the Benedictines - is not what the Government wants to do outside the basilica, which corresponds to the political sphere. The problem arises when «one contemplates extending said actions to the consecrated spaces of the temple, imposing a non-independent access subordinated to the prior passage through a center for historical and political interpretation.» And they concluded without leaving room for ambiguity: «said affectation includes, in addition to that conditioned access, the occupation of the atrium, the vestibule and other spaces of the temple, according to the project selected by the Government.»

Translated into plain language, without technicalities: Pedro Sánchez’s Executive does not limit itself to intervening in the surroundings of the Valley. It intends for the faithful to pass through a narrative - a center for historical and political interpretation - before being able to enter the basilica. It intends to occupy the atrium. It intends to transform the vestibule. It intends, without any ambiguity, to intervene in consecrated spaces. And all this, beyond the sacrality - emphasized the monks - compromises the principles of state neutrality and proportionality, as well as the constitutional right of the faithful to religious freedom and worship.

It is not just another opinion. It is the position of those who have the legal and spiritual responsibility for the temple.

What the president of the Spanish bishops said:

Five days later, on Sunday, May 3, the same newspaper published an interview with the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. And the version that Monsignor Argüello offered on that same project - already knowing the public position of the Benedictines - simply sounded different.

«The contest has come out and there is a winning project, but an appeal has been filed. At this moment, the possibility of reaching an agreement passes through the monks… and the Government… I believe there is the possibility of reaching an agreement that respects the abbey, the basilica and independent access. The current winning project respects the first two points and not independent access, but I think it is easy to resolve the matter if there is good will.»

It is worth pausing. Reading it slowly. Word by word. For the president of the Spanish bishops, the winning project «respects the basilica.» The problem - if any - would be independent access. A loose end. A technical detail. Something solvable with good will.

But five days earlier, the monks - the same ones who, as he recognizes, have the custody of the basilica - had affirmed exactly the opposite. That the project enters consecrated spaces. That it occupies the door. That it occupies the atrium. That it transforms the vestibule. That it conditions access to prior passage through a political interpretation center. That it raises fundamental problems, not nuances.

It is not a difference in approach. It is not a matter of language. It is a divergence of fact. They are not describing the same thing. They are not talking about the same project. They are not transmitting the same reality to the faithful.

What the plans say:

And then comes the uncomfortable fact, the verifiable one. The one that does not depend on interpretations or nuances. It is enough to open the public documentation from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, and look at the plans. And the plans are stubborn.

The planned intervention is not limited to the exterior nor does it stop at the surroundings, nor is it exhausted in access. It affects the basilica’s door, affects the atrium, and the interior vestibule. And it projects interventions in the entry sequence to the temple that alter its functional and symbolic configuration.

Unless the Government has silently changed its project - something it has not communicated - what appears in the official documents coincides with what the monks denounce. Not with the more reassuring version.

The contradiction, therefore, is not interpretive. It is factual. One of the two public descriptions does not fit what is written in the plans. And it is not the Benedictines’.

The due transparency

That is where the matter stops being a crossing of statements and acquires an institutional relief. Because Catholic faithful are not informational minors. They have the right to know what is at stake in a pontifical Basilica, what the Government intends to do in the interior of a consecrated temple, and what position their pastors hold.

When two ecclesiastical voices of that level offer incompatible versions, someone has to clarify it. Not to polemicize. Out of respect.

Did Monsignor Argüello know the content of the Third published by the Abbey five days before his interview? If he knew - and it is hard to think otherwise, why did he affirm that the project «respects the basilica»? Has he examined the plans published by the Government? What version should the faithful consider truthful?

They are not rhetorical questions. They are the questions that are already circulating - increasingly with less caution - in discreet conversations, in ecclesiastical circles, in sacristies and outside them.

Transparency, at this point, is not an optional virtue. When what is at stake is a consecrated temple and the religious freedom of the faithful, it is a minimum requirement.

Msgr. Oster denounces the pressure suffered for opposing reforms of the German Synodal Way

The Bishop of Passau (Germany), Monsignor Stefan Oster, has publicly acknowledged the deep discomfort caused by the assemblies of the German Synodal Way, the controversial reform process promoted by part of the Church in Germany. 

The prelate assured that he experienced those meetings as an experience of “emotional stress” due to the strong internal divisions and the pressure suffered from maintaining critical positions regarding some of the majority proposals.

According to what he declared in the podcast Frings fragt! from domradio.de and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Oster explained that he suffered particularly upon realizing that his stance of conscience contributed to publicly projecting the image of a divided Episcopal Conference.

“I contributed to it because I was part of that minority that said: ‘No, I can’t go that way’,” the bishop confessed.

The prelate also revealed that he personally conveyed to the Pope his concern and suffering over the internal situation of the German episcopate.

“The greatest transformation since the Reformation”

Oster is part of the small group of German bishops who, during the Synodal Way, repeatedly expressed reservations about several of the reforms defended by the majority, especially on issues related to sexual morality, power in the Church, and the priesthood.

The bishop stated that this position brought him strong media and ecclesial pressure.

“The polarizations intensified,” he acknowledged.

Even so, he explained that he also received support from both the faithful and people close to his ecclesial sensitivity.

During the interview, Oster maintained that the Church in Germany is currently undergoing “the greatest transformation since the Protestant Reformation,” shifting from a sociological model of Church to one in which Catholics will have to be able to personally explain what they believe and why they believe it.

Criticism of priestly formation

The Bishop of Passau also spoke about the need for a more serious discernment in the formation of future priests.

As he pointed out, experience has shown that priestly ordination does not automatically correct previous personal or psychological problems.

“Whoever was already strange in the seminary will end up even stranger,” he stated graphically.

Oster insisted on the importance of properly selecting those preparing for the priesthood and accompanying them in a more realistic and mature way.

Transparency regarding abuses

At another point in the conversation, the bishop advocated for greater transparency in the management of sexual abuse cases and in the handling of ecclesial finances.

Even so, he specified that certain delicate processes also require protected spaces to facilitate prudent decisions.

Oster considers that the German Church is currently more advanced than many other episcopal conferences in matters of abuse investigation and prevention, in part thanks to the significant economic resources available.

As an example, he mentioned the recently presented abuse study in Passau, which cost around 750,000 euros.

The bishop also highlighted that the Church has acquired notable experience in this area in Germany, although he warned that many issues remain pending and that attention to victims must not diminish.

Concern over social polarization

Beyond the ecclesial situation, Oster also expressed his concern about the deterioration of public debate and democratic culture in the West.

The bishop defended the idea that Western democracies historically rest on the Judeo-Christian vision of the human person and warned of the risk of losing that foundation.

“We are sawing off the branch we have grown on,” he lamented.

Likewise, he criticized the current media dynamics, marked—according to him—by the constant search for clicks, sensationalism, and polarization, something that also affects Catholic media outlets at times.

“Humiliation is also part of faith”

In a more personal tone, Oster also recalled his experiences as a young athlete practicing judo, where he learned the value of humility through defeat.

The bishop related that experience to the Christian dimension of humiliation and suffering.

“That is part of the very heart of our faith,” he affirmed.

Recalling the Passion of Christ, Oster emphasized that experiences of failure and humiliation are also part of the Christian’s path of human and spiritual maturation.

Msgr. Bux defends recovering the «reform of the reform» of Benedict XVI in the face of the Church's liturgical crisis

The Italian theologian and liturgist Monsignor Nicola Bux, former collaborator of Joseph Ratzinger and consultant to various Vatican dicasteries, has defended the need to recover the so-called “reform of the reform” promoted by Benedict XVI and has warned of the deep liturgical and doctrinal crisis that, in his opinion, the Church has been going through since the post-conciliar period.

In an interview granted to AdVaticanum, Bux argues that the current problems of the Church are not limited to a discussion between the traditional Mass and the rite reformed after the Second Vatican Council, but affect the very understanding of the liturgy and the sacred.

“The crisis of the liturgy and, therefore, of the Church, continues,” he states.

The Italian priest considers that after the post-Conciliar liturgical reform, a “pathological search for novelty” developed that ended up weakening the sense of mystery within ecclesial life. For this reason, he defends recovering traditional elements such as liturgical silence, Eucharistic adoration, kneeling communion, and celebration oriented toward the altar or the cross.

Hope in the face of Leo XIV’s gestures toward the traditional Mass

Bux also interprets as a positive sign the recent words and gestures of Leo XIV regarding the traditional liturgy, especially the letter sent to the French bishops requesting “generous” pastoral solutions for communities linked to the Mass in the ancient rite.

In the theologian’s opinion, the Pope seems to want to recover the approach promoted by Benedict XVI in Summorum Pontificum.

“What previous generations considered sacred remains sacred and great for us as well,” he recalls, quoting Benedict XVI.

The former Vatican consultant also rejects the idea that accepting the Second Vatican Council implies assuming without nuances the entire subsequent liturgical reform. As he explains, even Ratzinger acknowledged that certain concrete applications developed after the Council could be corrected or revised.

Criticism of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X and current ecumenism

Asked about the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X, Bux acknowledges that many of the fears that arose after the post-conciliar crisis were understandable, although he considers that the group ended up developing a “museum-like” vision of Tradition by distancing itself from Rome.

“Where Peter is, there is the Church,” he maintains.

The Italian liturgist also criticizes some aspects of contemporary ecumenism, especially the message sent by the Pope to Sarah Mullally after her installation as Anglican Primate of Canterbury.

According to him, the ordination of women is incompatible with Catholic doctrine, and this type of gesture generates confusion among many faithful.

Crisis of vocations and loss of the sacred

Finally, Bux attributes the crisis of priestly vocations in the West to weakness in the transmission of the faith and the growing secularization of society.

He also questions the so-called “pastoral units,” promoted to reorganize parishes in the face of the shortage of priests, and laments the progressive loss of traditional references within liturgical and pastoral life.

For the Italian priest, the true renewal of the Church can only come through a deep recovery of the sense of the sacred.

“The rebirth of the sacred is the condition for the renewal of the Church,” he concludes.

Argüello presents the visit of Leo XIV to Spain as a spiritual boost and defends the Church's approach to immigration

The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), Monsignor Luis Argüello, assured this Wednesday that the upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV to Spain will mean “a boost” for the Church and an opportunity to strengthen dialogue and trust in Spanish society.

During an extensive interview on the program La Noche en 24 Horas on RTVE, the same day that the complete itinerary of the apostolic journey was made public, Argüello linked the Pontiff’s visit to the current social, political, and spiritual context facing Spain and Europe.

“It will constitute an event that for the life of the Church will mean a boost,” affirmed the Archbishop of Valladolid.

A visit marked by secularization and the search for spirituality

Argüello acknowledged that the Church currently faces important challenges in an increasingly secularized society, although he noted that at the same time a renewed spiritual interest is perceived, especially among young people and adults.

As he explained, Spanish dioceses are observing an increase in adult baptisms, confirmations, and processes of approaching the faith.

“Yes, it can be said that Spanish society appreciates a special search,” he assured.

The president of the CEE indicated that Leo XIV’s visit can serve to offer responses to that spiritual unease and to publicly present “the sources from which the Church draws.”
He also recalled that there has been a strong desire for years for a new papal visit to Spain, especially after Francis was unable to make the planned trip to the Canary Islands due to health reasons.

Leo XIV will speak before the Congress of Deputies

One of the central moments of the trip will be the Pope’s address before the Cortes Generales, an event that Argüello described as especially significant.

The president of the Spanish bishops highlighted that both the Congress and the Senate unanimously approved the invitation to the Pontiff and emphasized the role that Leo XIV is acquiring on the international stage.

“The Pope appears as a moral authority and as a leader in favor of peace,” he affirmed.

Argüello also defended the fact that Western democracies are going through a crisis of ethical foundations and argued that the Pope’s presence can help introduce into the public debate issues related to the common good, human dignity, and the search for social agreements.

Canary Islands and the migratory focus of the trip

The migration issue will occupy a central place in the papal visit, especially during the stage planned in the Canary Islands.

Argüello explained that the Pontiff wants to focus on both the reception of immigrants and the root causes that provoke migratory movements from Africa to Europe.

“It is not just about reception, but also about the right not to have to leave one’s own country to be able to live,” he summarized.

The archbishop also pointed out that behind the migration crisis there are complex economic and demographic factors, including international inequalities and the need for labor in Europe.

Response to Vox’s criticisms

During the interview, Argüello was asked about Vox’s criticisms of the Episcopal Conference and Caritas for their support of the extraordinary regularization of immigrants.

The president of the CEE described it as “offensive” to claim that the Church “makes business” with immigration and defended the welfare work carried out by Caritas and other ecclesial institutions.

He also insisted that the Church recognizes the right of States to regulate migratory flows, although he emphasized that human dignity constitutes a “red line” that cannot be ignored.

“The priority is that of the Gospel,” he affirmed.

Argüello also explained that Caritas carries out much of its work thanks to contributions from the faithful and defended the fact that the Church’s social organizations can also access public aid under mechanisms of control and transparency.

Expectation ahead of Leo XIV’s visit

During the conversation, the president of the Episcopal Conference also referred to other current issues, such as the possibility of private meetings between Leo XIV and victims of sexual abuse during the visit to Spain, the reparation system agreed between the Church and the Government, Donald Trump’s recent criticisms of the Pope, and the use of Christian references in certain political movements in the United States.

Argüello also spoke about the growing international prominence of Leo XIV, whom he described as a figure with great intellectual capacity, international experience, and sensitivity for dialogue in a world context marked by conflicts and geopolitical tensions.

UK euthanasia legalization bill fails after being blocked in Parliament

The bill aimed at legalizing euthanasia in England and Wales has finally been blocked after failing to complete its parliamentary process before the close of the British legislative session.

Although some headlines initially presented the outcome as a voting defeat, the text was not formally rejected, but rather lapsed automatically upon the expiration of parliamentary deadlines without having been definitively approved by the House of Lords.

The initiative had been approved in June 2025 by the House of Commons and envisaged authorizing so-called “assisted dying” for terminally ill patients with a life expectancy of less than six months.

The bill established a system subject, at least on paper, to various medical and legal controls, including evaluation by two doctors and an expert panel, as well as requiring the patient themselves to administer the lethal substance.

An avalanche of amendments stalled the law

After passing its first parliamentary stage, the text moved to the House of Lords, where a much more complicated review than anticipated began.

Between late 2025 and April 2026, more than 1,200 amendments were presented, which enormously slowed down the process until making its approval impossible before the close of the parliamentary legislature.

In the British system, when a bill does not complete the entire legislative process before the session ends, it is automatically archived and must start from scratch if it is to be reintroduced.

Lord Falconer, one of the main promoters of the text, accused opponents of having used parliamentary blocking tactics to prevent the definitive approval of the law.

Surveys reflect strong social doubts

The failure of the bill also coincides with the publication of several polls showing growing skepticism among the British population regarding this type of laws. According to a survey conducted by More in Common, only 29% of citizens want the same bill to be reintroduced as soon as possible. 

In contrast, 53% believe that the proposal should not return or that, if it does, it should include much stricter safeguards.

The survey also reflects widespread concern for the protection of the sick, the elderly, and vulnerable people. 90% of respondents considered it essential to offer palliative care first before resorting to assisted suicide. 

Likewise, 71% advocated for the need for prior judicial authorization for each case, a safeguard that had been removed from the text during its parliamentary process.

Another of the most striking data points is that 95% of participants demanded strict rules to avoid family or economic pressures on patients.

The debate remains open in Europe

The British outcome arrives at a time when the debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide continues to advance in various European countries. 

In the face of these proposals, numerous bishops and Catholic organizations continue to demand greater development of palliative care and comprehensive accompaniment for terminally ill patients and dependent persons.

A year in, what’s on Pope Leo XIV’s to-do list? And what has he done so far?

Unlike Pope Francis, who shook things up early on with a flurry of reforms, appointments and new structures, Pope Leo XIV has sought to find his footing and take a longer view of his pontificate.

Leo has made some significant decisions so far, and has several challenges looming.

5 key appointments

Several upcoming appointments in the U.S. and at the Vatican will give Leo an opportunity to shape the church’s hierarchy and central governance more to his liking and priorities.

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich turned 77 in March, two years over the normal retirement age for bishops, meaning Leo could soon name an archbishop for his hometown.

In December, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez turns 75, giving Leo a chance to name a new leader for the largest U.S. archdiocese.

He already has named Archbishop Ronald Hicks to replace retiring Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, but that appointment “didn’t ideologically code dramatically one way or the other … in keeping with Leo’s overall kind of approach to a lot of these decisions,” said Michael Moreland, professor of law and religion at Leo’s alma mater, Villanova University.

At the Vatican, British Cardinal Arthur Roche turned 76 and heads the liturgy office, which was responsible for enforcing Francis’s controversial crackdown on the old Latin Mass. Roche’s eventual successor will be scrutinized to see how Leo might address the divisive issue.

Another Vatican heavyweight is American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who at 78 is well beyond retirement age but still heads its family and laity office. He also serves as the camerlengo, who oversaw the conclave that elected Leo, and the most sensitive Holy See committees that are responsible for financial investments and the city state’s highest court of appeal.

Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny’s 80th birthday in July will not only make him the oldest Vatican prefect -– he heads the Vatican’s office for migrants, the environment and development — but also will exclude him from voting in the next conclave.

That will reduce the number of voting-age cardinals to 117, below the threshold of 120 that is the usual cap for the number of cardinals under 80 who can vote. That suggests Leo could in the next year announce his first class of new cardinals to choose his successor.

4 ways Leo has changed Francis’s policies

At the start of his pontificate, Francis called for young people to shake things up in their dioceses and “make a mess.” Leo already has sought to clean up some of these messes.

In April, the Vatican canceled a Francis initiative, the World Day of Children, which had raised questions about what it aimed to accomplish and why. The cancellation followed Leo’s formal suppression of the ad hoc pontifical commission that Francis had created for the event in 2024.

In December, Leo dissolved a Holy See fundraising commission that was created under questionable circumstances in 2025 while Francis was hospitalized in his final weeks of life. The commission included only Italians with no professional fundraising experience. Its president was the assessor of the Secretariat of State, the same Vatican office that Francis had previously stripped of its ability to manage assets after it lost tens of millions of euros in a scandalous London property deal.

Leo then announced a new committee to develop fundraising proposals and structures.

“The Holy Father was clearly paying attention,” said Ward Fitzgerald, president of The Papal Foundation, a group of wealthy U.S. donors who fund papal charity projects in the developing world. “He realized that it was not going to be highly functional.”

Leo also abrogated a 2022 law issued by Francis that concentrated financial power in the Vatican bank. Leo issued his own law allowing the Holy See’s investment committee to use banks outside the Vatican, if it made better financial sense.

Leo also met with activist survivors of clergy sexual abuse, who said he promised to engage in dialogue as they press the Vatican to adopt a worldwide policy of zero-tolerance for abuse. Francis had met regularly with individual abuse survivors, but kept advocacy and activist groups at arm’s length.

3 key audiences with Leo

Leo’s private audiences have provided clues into areas of interest and concern, suggesting he’s open to hearing a variety of views even if he betrays little of his own opinions.

That was he case when he met March 16 with Gareth Gore, author of “Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking and Right-Wing Conspiracy Inside the Catholic Church,” about alleged abuses in the powerful Opus Dei movement.

On Feb. 6, Leo met privately with a delegation from Courage International, a church-run organization that says it helps people with same-sex attraction live chastely. Critics have accused Courage of being anti-gay and promoting conversion therapy, something it denies.

Leo met March 5 with Stephen Bullivant and Stephen Cranney, authors of “Trads. Latin Mass Catholics in the United States.” They had conducted a survey about Catholics who attend the traditional Latin Mass.

Leo is well aware of the controversy surrounding Francis’s crackdown on the Latin Mass and has expressed an eagerness to speak with traditionalists to understand their views as he weighs how to heal the divisions over the old liturgy.

2 looming problems

The Latin Mass dispute could come to a head July 1 when four new traditionalist Catholic bishops are consecrated in a ceremony without Leo’s consent. The bishops belong to the breakaway traditionalist group, the Society of St. Pius X, and their consecration will pose the biggest challenge to Leo’s authority to date. If performed, it would amount to a schismatic act all but ensuring their automatic excommunication.

The SSPX is a fringe group within the overall traditionalist Catholic family. But traditionalist Catholics in full communion with the Holy See are watching what Leo will do.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Vatican faces the prospect of a major break with the German Catholic Church over its long-term reform process known as the Synodal Path. That has led to the proposed creation of a permanent mixed body of German bishops and lay Catholics who would jointly make decisions, in a major break with Catholic ecclesiology that puts governing power in the hands of bishops alone.

The Vatican has already made clear it opposes such a joint structure, and has also voiced disagreement with German proposals to formalize blessings for same-sex couples, which Francis had allowed but only on an informal, spontaneous basis.

There could be a confrontation when the German proposals are submitted to Rome for final approval.

1 big issue to come

While some would say the top issue facing Leo is his relationship with President Donald Trump and a possible trip to the U.S. — none is planned this year — Leo would probably point to his long-awaited first encyclical. Expected in the next few weeks, it deals with artificial intelligence and other peace and justice issues.

Leo already has said he considers the AI revolution to be similar in existential scope to the concerns over workers’ rights at the turn of the century confronted by the previous Pope Leo XIII, in his landmark encyclical “Rerum Novarum” (“Of New Things”).

“Like his namesake Leo XIII with the Industrial Revolution, Leo clearly sees the church as having something important to offer in an era of what may turn out to be epochal technological change,” said Dan Rober, associate professor of Catholic studies at Sacred Heart University.

Pope Leo XIV sought a pastoral role in his first year, but verbal sparring with Trump intervened

Pope Leo XIV had tried during his first year as pontiff to insist that his essential role was that of a pastor accompanying his flock. President Donald Trump’s continuing criticisms – and Leo’s increasingly bold retorts – complicated the effort and overshadowed Friday’s anniversary of Leo’s election.

Leo spent the eve of the 1-year mark meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had come to the Vatican on a fence-mending visit. 

Trump’s repeated broadsides against history’s first U.S. pope created an unprecedented back-and-forth on the Iran war that strained U.S.-Holy See relations.

By the end of the visit, both the Vatican and the State Department stressed their strong bilateral ties. But the episode nevertheless pushed Leo out of his comfort zone and onto the global stage to make zingers like the one this week, after Trump’s latest misrepresentation of his views. “If someone wants to criticize me for announcing the Gospel, let him do it with the truth,” Leo said.

It’s all a bit out of character for Leo who — the world has come to learn in this first year — is at heart a mild-mannered, 70-year-old Midwestern missionary priest, and a reserved one at that. He likes to play the solitary game of tennis, cites the fifth-century philosopher St. Augustine from memory and insists he is merely quoting the Bible when he calls for peace, as he did again Friday in marking his anniversary.

“May the God of peace pour out an overflowing abundance of mercy, touching hearts, soothing grudges and fratricidal hatred, and enlightening those who bear special responsibilities of governance,” Leo said during an anniversary homily in the ancient city of Pompeii.

The Trump-Leo feud aside, the former Robert Prevost after his first year seems driven not by the dramatic gesture or headline-grabbing tensions that often fueled his predecessor, Pope Francis. Rather, Leo seems inspired by the calm, persistent zeal to preach the Gospel and — thanks to his Augustinian spirituality — emphasize community and harmony.

A year of learning and unifying

Leo began his improbable papacy promising to work for unity in a polarized world and church, and at the one-year mark, he seems to be delivering.

After Francis’ revolutionary and sometimes divisive 12-year papacy, Leo has brought a calming balm to the Vatican and church at large. He seems intent on healing divisions, even as new threats of schism emerge.

That has certainly been the case as he navigates some of the thorniest challenges facing the Catholic Church: tensions between traditionalists and progressives, financial problems facing the Holy See and the geopolitical crises at the heart of the Trump vs. Leo dissonance.

“I think the challenge that the Holy Father has is to strengthen the unity of the church,” said Cardinal Wilton Gregory, a Chicago native like Leo and the retired archbishop of Washington. While there have always been divisions, Gregory said social media had amplified them, and that Leo seems intent on tamping them down.

“Social communication makes it possible for people to take sides, and sometimes taking sides adds to the divisiveness that we have to deal with and that the Holy Father, as the Bishop of Rome, has to respond to,” Gregory said in an interview.

“He has to call us to our better angels,” he added.

That seemed to be Leo’s modus operandi when, days into his recent Africa trip, he temporarily quelled the Trump broadsides by essentially declaring he was above the president’s social media rants. While insisting he would continue preaching the Gospel message of peace, Leo said it “is not in my interest at all,” to debate Trump.

“I primarily come to Africa as a pastor, as the head of the Catholic Church to be with, to celebrate with, to encourage and accompany all the Catholics throughout Africa,” he said.

He repeated that message at the trip’s conclusion, saying the political role that comes with being pope, a head of state and global moral authority, was simply not his priority.

An English-speaking American pope

For many, the shock of an American pope, who defied the taboo precluding a Rome-based moral counterweight to the White House, still hasn’t worn off.

“It’s been the first year of an American pope who has been critical of what America is doing for the most part,” said Anthea Butler, senior fellow at the Koch Institute, Oxford University.

She stressed that Leo is doing so “not coming full-on like Francis would,” but approaching issues from the side. He’s not naming names, he’s merely preaching the Gospel.

That approach has certainly helped some U.S. Catholic institutions, after the American church developed an almost comically bad relationship with Francis. His criticism of American-style capitalism was amplified by U.S.-based conservative Catholic media during his papacy.

For many Vatican watchers, the Argentine pope simply didn’t “get” the U.S., and vice versa. Some U.S. Catholics eventually soured on donating to the Holy See under Francis, following years of unrelenting stories of mismanagement, corruption and scandal.

But with a Chicago math major now pope, “he can’t be dismissed as being ignorant of the realities in the United States,” said Kerry Alys Robinson, chief executive of Catholic Charities USA, a national network of Catholic agencies.

Robinson said she had never seen U.S. Catholic bishops so united as now, particularly in speaking about the dignity of migrants and poor people. She credits that to many factors, including the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and funding cuts that have created a common purpose. But she doesn’t discount the unifying message from Leo, in English.

“It’s very different when you are hearing the message without it being mediated through translation,” she said.

Repairing US relationships

Ward Fitzgerald, president of The Papal Foundation, which funds the pope’s charity projects in the developing world, said an English-speaking pope has been a boon especially in the U.S. and Europe, where there is anecdotal evidence of a “Leo effect” spurring new converts.

“I think there’s lots of reasons for it, but I certainly think that having a pope who speaks English helps young people understand the messages of the Holy Father,” Fitzgerald said in an interview. That also translates to donors to the church, especially from the United States.

“When you tell a donor, ‘I really appreciate what you do’ in English — and they’re English — I think it resonates,” Fitzgerald said. “And so they give a little more.”

The Papal Foundation recently announced 25 new families had joined its ranks since Leo’s election, a not-insignificant number given membership requires a minimum $1.25 million pledge.

Fitzgerald and members of the foundation met with Leo last week and gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica for a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the towering figure of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy and a kingmaker in the 2025 conclave that elected Leo.

Dolan is also chummy with Trump, and is a member of his Religious Liberty Commission.

In his homily, Dolan extolled the attributes of St. Joseph, the father of Christ and a figure so beloved in the church he is the patron saint of more causes than any other saint. Dolan also revealed his feelings about Leo, whom he had watched in the Sistine Chapel become the 267th pope a year ago Friday.

St. Joseph was a man of silence, Dolan said, calm and secure in his place.

“A man who exuded a sense of depth and substance. A man who is shy, all right, a man who is focused on his mission,” he added. “A man, always attentive to God’s plan.”

Dolan then asked the Americans seated in the pews if they could think of anyone else who fit St. Joseph’s description.

“I can,” Dolan said. “Pope Leo reminds me of Joseph.”

Pope meets disadvantaged on the day of his election and preaches peace

"Buongiorno Pompei! Thank you all for being here!"

Like a rock star, Pope Leo XIV greets thousands of cheering people in southern Italy's Pompeii on Friday, where he is celebrating the first anniversary of his papal election. 

Exactly one year earlier, on the evening of the 8. May 2025, he had commemorated the Madonna of the Rosary on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica. 

It is worshipped in a neo-baroque sanctuary in the city known to tourists mainly by the volcanic eruption in antiquity and the famous excavations.

But the basilica, the Bartolo Longo (1841-1926) in the 19th, on the initiative of the converted former church opponent, lawyer and in 2025 canonized Bartolo Longo (1841-1926). Built for the century, not only is a religious but also a social center. 

Here, poor families, orphans, seniors, the sick and disabled receive support. 

The Pope wanted to devote a lot of time to them during his three-and-a-half-hour appearance.

Intensive preparations

On the other hand, the day had already begun before sunrise for the people in the 25,000-inhabitant city and their guests. Already around 4.30 a.m., pilgrims from the surrounding area had arrived by train.

Svetlana, one of about 600 volunteers, police, security and medical workers, treats herself to a coffee in a bar next to the Piazza at just after six with her team. "It is an honor for us that the Pope will come by. After all, Pompeii is not the most significant city in the world," said the young paramedic.

Massimiliano does not want to accept this in his souvenir shop. "Pompeii not significant? It has been famous for centuries for his devotion to Mary!" according to the businessman, while draping rain capes and umbrellas for five euros in front of the shop. 

Because: "It should rain around ten o'clock." He also offers a T-shirt with the Pope's counterfeit and comments: "a very smart and friendly man".

Meanwhile, in the Piazza, the people of Pompeii and the surrounding area are stationed. The children have school-free. 

Roadblocks were erected the night before and mobile toilets were provided. Of countless lantern riders, the head of the church smiles under the slogan "Welcome, Pope Leo XIV."

Balloons and flowers in Vatican yellow and white decorate the place. Around 5,000 chairs are set up in the city centre in various locations. In the morning, some of them remain free at first. 

After the heavy rain from the previous day and because of the cool May temperatures for southern Italy, many had probably preferred the TV broadcast to the stay outdoors. In total, 20,000 people have come, according to police data.

Bell ringing and cheering

When all the bells ring at 8.52 a.m., the tension is palpable: the Pope's helicopter has landed. 

After the welcome by the local bishop and regional politician, he walks to the "Temple of Charity," next to the sanctuary. 

There, the visibly moved Pope hears reports of those affected, who tell him about their fate, illness, violence and loneliness, but also of the help they experience.

Leo XIV. thanks each and every one as well as the many engaged, shakes countless hands, blesses children and shows himself approachable and well laid out during several trips in the open golf car. 

Before he enters the Basilica, he, the red mozzetta above his white robe, spontaneously greets the thousands of pilgrims and refers to "la Mamma": the mother Mary, who is always with the people and accompanies them with their intercession and love.

Applause for urgent peace sermon

His words are glamingly applauded by the people, while the May sun shows itself tentatively behind the clouds. 

At the ensuing Mass in front of the basilica, Leo XIV once again addresses the topic he had set immediately after his election and which characterizes him more and more: commitment to peace. People acknowledge the sermon several times with loud applause.

After the midday prayer to the Madonna of the Rosary, the Pope’s public appearance in Pompeii ends. In the afternoon, further encounters with crowds were on the program, this time in neighboring Naples.